MEXICAN TRUCKS: Murray Includes Language in Bill Urging Administration to Act

(Washington, D.C.) –U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) included language in the Fiscal Year 2011 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) Appropriations bill that calls on the Administration to put forward a plan that would end retaliatory tariffs on Washington state agricultural products by October 1, 2010. The bill passed the THUD subcommittee, which Murray chairs, as well as the full Appropriations committee, and will now head to the full Senate for consideration.

“I am extremely frustrated that the Administration has not yet acted while farmers across my home state of Washington continue to suffer under Mexico’s retaliatory tariffs,” said Senator Patty Murray. “I am urging both the Obama Administration and the Mexican government to solve this issue and allow Washington state farmers to compete on a level playing field. Since there has been inaction for too long, I included specific language in the transportation spending bill giving the Administration a clear deadline of October 1, 2010 to solve this problem.”

What does your insurance carrier say about the fender-bender you got into with the Swift truck? Looks to me that you came across an (allegedly) shady American company and are trying to blame Mexico for your troubles.

Here in Chicago we have shady trucking companies, with trucks driven by illegals (heck, one of our former governors is in prison for it, partly), but it's as much NAFTA's fault as it is NASA's.

And you continue to mix short-haul truckers with long-haul truckers: you're not going to fix your program with short-haul truckers* by keeping 100 long-haul truckers off the road. That's just silly.

Finally, this whole mess started because the Dems caved to the people on your side of the argument: we banned Mexican long-haul trucks. So now, we've hurt some producers in some other areas (including Texas, which is our largest exporter to Mexico), you feel better about it because "we really stuck it to them" by banning those 100 trucks, but you are still complaining that you see Mexican trucks, and that Mexican trucks are still running into you. In other words, you "solved" an imaginary problem you didn't have, and ignored your real problem. And that leads me to my final point: solving non-existent problems, and ignoring (or creating) new ones is what our government does best. And if you think that slapping tariffs on everything coming across the border won't cause more problems than it solves, you are part of the problem, also.

So you're a trucker, right? Do you actually wish to be out of work?

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*Short-haul trucks are statistically less safe, in poorer maintenance, and driven by less-experienced drivers than long-haul trucks. We have more than our share of them in Chicago, as our rail-freight traffic (25% of the country's) is so congested that some rail shippers unload onto trucks, drive across town, and reload.

What does your insurance carrier say about the fender-bender you got into with the Swift truck?

Considering that they still insure us and considering the fact that they went to bat for us against SWIFT, one can safely assume they were on our side. It wasn't our insurance provider (GreatWest Casualty, S. Sioux City, Ne) that finally won the battle in the end though. Swift was set to fight them in court and they knew it would cost more to fight than what they could get back. You see, we're not vultures, but we do expect to get compensated for ALL damages & costs of rental equipment & downtime. I sent the check back & got on the phone with Swift myself & 3 months later, they paid every penny of our claim, including the cost of the rental truck & downtime we incurred which they were unwilling to cover when dealing with GreatWest. Instead of a meager few thousand dollar check, they finally ended up paying the ENTIRE costs we incurred to keep US from filing in court against them. You see, the costs we submitted for reimbursement were only a percentage of the actual costs anyone else would have incurred because we are able to do our own bodywork, etc. Very little repair was done outside of our own shop. Then we also have the fact that we were in the truck when it happened. It jarred us right out of our seats & our fully loaded tractor-trailer was drug for nearly 6 feet, so yes, we did have to go in for chiropractic treatment which we did not submit. But when threatened to be taken into court and the entire sordid ordeal exposed of their incompetent drivers, they buckled & NO, we never took a penny for the back treatments.

Chicago? Is that still on the map? (sarc) We haven't been there for decades & we have no plans to ever go back. The far outlying western burbs are not bad though and that is the farthest east we go, but Chicago is hardly the worst, just the worst in the upper midwest.

Your next analogy of long v. short haul trucking is a strawman argument. Trucking is trucking and the rules are the same for both.

Finally, your next strawman argument that it may only affect 100 trucks is miserably inept. Those trucks are owned by US companies that are looking to beat the system to make a quick buck. You obviously do not understand or have the capacity to comprehend how much revenue 100 trucks with slave wage drivers can bring to a big company, NO MATTER the distance they run.

So you're a trucker, right? Do you actually wish to be out of work?

Yes, I am a trucker, although I do not have to make the long trips on a regular basis anymore. My next trip will begin 2moro when the truck comes in and then we have to run over to WI to unload and then reload in IA on the way back. I am very thankful to NOT have to visit the rat race on a daily basis anymore. I am also co-owner of the business with my husband & am in charge of ALL the bureaucratic duties which at one time included hiring & firing. We finally completely downsized back to just a “mom & pop” operation in 2004 due to the fact we just weren't making enough profit to compensate both of us as well as keeping up our drivers wages thanks to the governments involvement & the exorbitant costs of everything due to the rising prices of oil. Starting in 2002, we began selling the equipment to the drivers. We set them up with the customers as well as all the owner operators we had leased onto us & they are ALL still trucking to this day. All but 1 of the drivers who bought their equipment still rents shop space from us! The one that doesn't is still a very close friend and has turned his shed on his acreage into a shop so he doesn't have to travel 80 mile round trips to work on his equipment anymore. So am I worried that the reinstatement of this program will put us out of work, NO WAY! But we have every right to expect EVERY company truck & every company driver on the road to adhere to the SAME rules & regulations we are made to adhere to.

Finally, you are wrong if you think Chicago has the market on congestion and rampid run amok short haul & local straight trucks. It's just the corruption of the Chicago machine that makes it seem so bad & now we have that same corruption in “We the People's” White House & House of Congress.

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