The Source for Trucking News, Opinions and Trucking Jobs

In more than a few posts I’ve said I’m against Mexican trucks in the US. That has nothing to do with people trying to get better jobs to support their families. It’s about companies taking advantage of people for cheap labor.

BTA: News From The Border: August 2004 Archives

Study: Many affected negatively from NAFTA

August 17, 2004
Victoria Hirschberg
The Monitor

McALLEN — In the 10 years since its inception, the North American Free Trade Agreement may have been good for business, but that has not been the case for workers who have felt its impact, according to a newly released study.

Workers from Mexico, Canada and the United States have been losers in the game of free trade, the study conducted by the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement contends.

It’s not just about Mexican workers replacing American workers, it’s about companies not paying a fair wage even in Mexico.
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The Montana Standard - Butte, Montana USA

HELENA — A federal anti-terrorism requirement for greater scrutiny of truck drivers could affect Montana’s effort to train felons for work behind the wheel.

The requirement under the Patriot Act also has state officials trying to determine how Montana will proceed with mandatory fingerprinting of all drivers seeking permission to haul hazardous goods.

In this state, that’s mostly fertilizer and fuel, the Montana Motor Carriers Association says, but the list includes some 60,000 different materials.

Under the Patriot Act, passed after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, commercial drivers with certain felony convictions are prohibited from transportinghazardous materials on the nation’s highways. Dean Roberts, head of the Montana Motor Vehicle Division, said up to one-fourth of truck drivers may have prison records.

Another source for drivers dried up. What are we going to do if trucking can’t train and hire ex-cons to drive?
I have nothing against ex-cons driving. Trucking has always looked for cheap labor pools. Everyone from welfare moms to convicts have been encouraged to drive by getting their training paid for by the state because the industry is in such dire straits with this so-called driver shortage.
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The State | 08/15/2004 | Companies need drivers to keep on trucking

Being away from home for long stretches at a time, driving 500 miles a day and battling traffic is lonely, stressful work and, as a result, the industry has a high turnover rate. Limited wage growth since trucking was deregulated in 1979 has exacerbated the problem.

But trucking executives say they’ve had to work even harder lately as jobs with comparable pay packages open up in construction, agriculture and manufacturing. That means companies need to lure new drivers and keep veterans from switching to careers that allow them to work closer to home.

Did they not see the previous line that wages have sucked since ‘79? What do they think can “lure” new drivers and keep veterans? Articles like this make my head explode. Where’s my duct tape?
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Your log book can send you to jail. Why keep taking that chance? If blackboxes were cheap and dependable there wouldn’t be a question. They don’t need black boxes to find out you’ve been lying.

Northwest Indiana News: nwitimes.com - News: Trucker in deadly Amtrak crash guilty of logbook violations

KANKAKEE (AP) — The truck driver involved in a deadly 1999 Amtrak derailment near Bourbonnais was convicted Wednesday of violating driving time limits and logbook rules — the only criminal charges he faced in the crash that killed 11 people.

The crash also injured 122 others aboard Amtrak’s “City of New Orleans” and pushed federal officials to overhaul truckers’ hours-of-service rules for the first time since 1939.

I wonder if that’s really true. Out of all the crashes and logbook violations since 1939, this was the one that persuaded the change?
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Audio books can be a great companion when you’re driving long hours. Books read by their authors are more special heard than read. You hear their own emotion that they meant to come out when they wrote it and the subtlety in their voice that you can’t get reading it yourself. Dennis Miller Rants are just better read by Dennis Miller. Christopher Reeve’s book is even more powerful when you hear his voice getting tired and hear his respirator helping him take a breath between sentences. It takes his story to a different level when you hear his struggle in his own voice.
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Don’t you just hate people that slow you down by driving the speed limit?

Yahoo! News - Driver Beaten Up for Observing Speed Limit

Police in the western town of Bochum said the truck driver told them he felt provoked by the motorist “because he was actually driving 30 kph in a 30 kph area.” The trucker faces an investigation and may lose his driving license.

Sad, but funny at the same time.