Mary Peters should be fired …

I spend a considerable amount of time these days thinking of a woman I barely knew of three months ago; the Department of Transportation Secretary Mary Peters.

Mary is another Bush administration lawbreaker with a blatant disregard to working Americans and the safety of all citizens. It is her department that has chosen to interpret a law that was passed on on December 26, 2007 that would have scrapped the Mexican trucking progam.

When the North American Free Trade Agreement passed 11 years ago, it carried a promise for a cross-border trucking program between Canada, Mexico and the United States.  For the last 11 years, the program that stretched Mexico into the US was halted by the Teamsters Union and other groups, such as the Sierra Club.  The program was pushed back because it was known (as it is now) that the Mexican trucks are not up to snuff, to say the least … and to make matters even more unsafe, the Mexican drivers are not held to the same standards as the American counterparts.

This affects a lot of people - and more people are affected in a negative manner than in a positive. You see, there are hundreds of drivers whose whole business plan is based on off-loading — which means the truck’s cargo is unloaded after it traveled a maximum of 25 miles into the US border; the load is then put on an American driver’s truck and is delivered to its final destination.

With the advent of the Mexican trucking “pilot program” that Peters is pushing through, the trucks and drivers from South of the Border are free to roam the entire United States and bypass the off-load. The problem, other than that this leaves a lot of American drivers unemployed, is that the trucks are not safe at all. The drivers don’t have to pass the same kind of tests that we do in the States, and … well, it is dangerous all around for everyone.

So, why would Mary Peters disrespect the law that scrapped this program? She is under the impression that this is good for business. She is under the delusion that the trucks are not only up to standard, but are often times better than the American trucks … Unfortunately, she is full of crap or simply has no idea what she is talking about.

One thing that I like to point out to folks about this program has to do with the hours -of- service.  Most everyone knows, or should, that a commercial driver in the United States cannot drive more than 11 straight hours before pulling over for a set amount of rest. Eleven hours is too long as it is, and though that too was hard-fought on the Hill, it was held down … and 11 it remains. So … what happens if a Mexican driver has driven for 8 -10 hours just to get to the border? They are then given another 11-straight hours to drive their cargo on. That’s nuts … I don’t want to be anywhere near a 40-ton truck driven by a Mexican on hios 18th or 19th hour … it is simply an accident waiting to happen.

While Mary says the Mexican trucks are just fine, the reality is that there is no requirement for these trucks to have anti-lock brakes. I think about that one  … a lot. There is not a vehicle legally driving in the United States that does not have anti-locks on them, can you imagine a 40-ton truck full of cargo driven by a brother who has not slept in 18-hours barreling past you on a slippery highway? It is dangerous … all around dangerous.

All of these little fact and findings are well explained at the Teamster-driven website www.FireMaryPeters.com.  If anyone is getting this Weblog, please take a minute to go over there and take action to help get Mary sacked from her job, clearly she sucks at what she does.