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MEXICANS' TRUCKS DEBATE * USA - With 16 Mexican carriers, results statistically invalid
A pilot program to test the safety of Mexican trucks on U.S. highways has failed to attract enough participants to produce statistically valid results, according to an inspector general's report issued yesterdayWashington,DC,USA -Copley News Service/San Diego Union Tribune, by Paul M. Krawzak -March 11, 2008: --U.S. transportation officials had envisioned that up to 100 Mexican carriers would be involved in the six-month-old experiment by now, the interim assessment from the Department of Transportation's inspector general's office said. But as of Feb. 25, only 16 Mexican carriers had participated... One surprise in the report was that the vast majority of Mexican trucks have not traveled beyond a 25-mile wide commercial zone on the U.S. side of the border, when the point of the program was to enable them to do so. Mexican trucks have been allowed to drive into the border zone for years... Mexican participants have crossed into the United States 3,680 times since the pilot program began, but only 247 of those trips, or 6.7 percent, went beyond the commercial zone, the report said... The report also noted that California was the state where most of the trips beyond the border zone occurred. It said 89 percent of the 247 trips beyond the zone occurred in California... The assessment comes at a critical time for the program, which was designed to last one year... (U-T file photo - U.S. transportation officials had expected up to 100 Mexican trucking companies would be involved in the program, but as of Feb. 25 only 16 were)
* Peters' Testimony on Mexican Trucks Was Frightening - Hoffa Lauds Pryor, Dorgan for Standing Up for Safety and the Constitution
* Peters' Testimony on Mexican Trucks Was Frightening - Hoffa Lauds Pryor, Dorgan for Standing Up for Safety and the Constitution
South Eastern,USA -FREIGHT TEAMSTERS -March 11, 2008: -- Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa said today that Americans should be frightened by the Bush administration's low regard for safety as it opens the border to dangerous trucks from Mexico... During Tuesday's hearing, Peters continued to insist that the pilot program is lawful, though Congress passed a law cutting off funds for it... Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., told her that Congress's intent to end the program was clear... Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., said, "The secretary and her legal counsel will not have the last word. Congress will have the last word"... A revelation arising from the hearing was the low standard for determining that a driver is proficient in English, a requirement for driving in the U.S... Inspector General Calvin Scovell testified that a memorandum had been issued by the Transportation Department stating that if a driver could accurately describe the meaning of four road signs in any language understood by the inspector, then he would be considered proficient in English... "It's absolutely absurd that a truck driver doesn't have to respond to questions in English in order to be determined to be proficient in English," Hoffa said... Scovell also said the FMCSA had no way of knowing whether every truck was checked every time it crossed the border...
Labels: mexican's trucks
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