Many of these Mexican trucks are the cast-offs of American companies; trucks whose economy of upkeep has exceeded their worth. In Laredo one day on a delivery to our terminal there,I noted ten year old cab-overs with Mexican registry with parts of the body hanging-off and dragging and on the ground. Were I to pull into a weight scale in such condition I’d be shut down, fined, log book sodomized, and defamed by every other trucker in line to be scaled.
Lord help those who are driving alongside these trucks.
I don’t mind them driving in the US,...provided they all drive ten times up and down the Eisenhower Grade prior to embarking elsewhere in the US. ;^)
Almost 20 years ago when a company I worked for at the time was dispatching shipments of goods cross country, CA wouldn't allow our owner-operator's trucks into the state which didn't have an emergency air pressure system to release the spring brakes that lock the wheels if an air line or tank loses pressure. Some of our drivers had to drop their trailers at the CA POE and have CA trucks pick them up to finish delivery.
I suppose by now all American long haul trucks probably have that system installed at the factory, but I doubt that very many of the old and poorly maintained Mexican trucks have it. I guess CA will be forced to let them in even though American trucks without it can't get past the CA POE.
As you can see I'm way out of touch with the trucking industry today, so this brake release matter may not even be relevant nowadays.
I will offer this advice. When the EU opened up all the borders...and all these Ukrainian, Russian, Romanian, and Bulgarian trucks started passing via Germany...the Germans started up a tough vehicle safety act (with real vehicle inspectors...not cops). They would pull a truck over and immediately demand a inspection. If you failed anything in the medium-safety area...they would bring you over to the county office inspection station and conduct an intensive inspection. Most trucks brought to the station...always failed and were immediately ordered into a compound area where it’d sit until they were properly repair (in that city).
So several things started to occur. The inspections units were pulling in $250k a month easily within their zones....which paid for a dozen inspectors and their vehicles easily. The repair garages near the inspection stations...started to turn more profit than they normally would have. And unsafe vehicles? Oh, they were taken off the road and forced to sit idle....which meant a loss in income.
The federal judges can do just about anything they want...but at the county and state level...you can organize these inspection laws and bring in millions to your district. I wouldn’t waste time on this...the money is yours easily. And if the folks just leave the truck there with its cargo...fine...you just seize the stuff after 30 days and give the money to the local school district. Everyone wins in the end.
Unsafe vehicles...can be a profit machine for everyone in the end.
Wouldn't state troopers pull over a truck that isn't safe?