ance coverage—if Mexican carriers can obtain coverage at
all—combined with the risk of being hit with a massive jury
award in the event of an incident would be enough to keep
many Mexican truckers out of U.S. commerce.
Then there’s the expense. Mexican carriers looking to
expand into the United States would face significant
upfront costs for labor, maintenance, facilities, and equipment. The typical Mexican trucker has a fleet of six trucks,
hardly enough to justify the kind of capital investment
needed to play in the world’s biggest economy, experts say.
In addition, the agreement bars Mexican carriers from
accepting loads moving between U.S. points, thus keeping
the intra-U.S. market off-limits to competition with U.S.
carriers.
THE DEBATE GOES ON
In the meantime, the debate over easing restrictions on
Mexican truckers continues. The agreement’s opponents—
chief among them the Teamsters union and Owner-
Operator Independent Drivers Association, the trade group
representing the nation’s independent drivers—have
warned that cheaper Mexican labor will undercut U.S. driv-
er wages and siphon off jobs. Leathers of Werner says the
argument is a red herring, contending that any labor cost
advantage enjoyed by Mexican drivers will be more than
offset by their companies’ higher costs of capital and equip-
ment, as well as the increased liability exposure.
NATIONAL MOTOR FREIGHT transportationreport
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