It was announced today by officials of both nations, February 24th, 
at the world's busiest border crossing, between Tijuana, Mexico and San Ysidro, California, that as soon as April of this year a one-year test will begin allowing Mexican trucks and their drivers virtually unfettered access to all roads in the USA. This creates numerous problems, especially for southern California.
Here's how a San Diego newspaper covered it: "After more than a decade of fierce opposition, U.S. and Mexican officials came to the Otay Mesa border crossing yesterday (just south of San Diego) to announce a pilot program that will open highways on both sides of the border to truckers from either country. U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters said the yearlong pilot program, which could start as early as April, will initially enroll 100 Mexican and 100 U.S. long-haul freight companies. She gave further details of plans first disclosed Thursday."
OK, this is what I see: The potential problems are all quite obvious. First, safety: Americans really have no idea of the safety and testing standards for these drivers and their trucks. However, anyone who has ever been in Mexico can say honestly that the average big-rig truck on that nation's highways generally seem older, more beat-up, more polluting and on average more unsafe than their American counterparts. And the 'smog' problem is not at all subjective; the Mexican trucks use a much dirtier form of diesel in their trucks then is now allowed to be sold in the USA. The smog/pollution problem is completely objective and on TV news tonight from Los Angeles, an official with the South Coast Air Management District, which monitors and regulates the air quality in the LA, San Diego and Orange County areas, flatly stated that there will definitely be increased cancer deaths in southern California and perhaps the rest of the nation, even from this one year test, which could go into effect in 40 days.
As for safety; as stated, anyone who has driven in Mexico, especially at night, knows that there seem to be no actual 'rules of the road'; the whole system is made-up of what anyone can "get away with", because the police which do patrol the main highways are interested in pulling over (and extorting) vehicles with US license plates --- In cities and towns, the extortion problem is even worse, as citizens from other nations (known by ther license plates or if they are driving a rental car) are regularly pulled over for no reason at all and forced to "pay the fine" or go to jail ... It's that simple. By the way, the operativer term is "mordida", literally, "the bite" ... That's what the bribes are called by everyone. Don't be shy ... Offer to pay it, and fast, and get your butt (and your friends and/or family) out of there! (Photo - San Ysidro border crossing, world's busiest).
It's much more of a wide-open, free-for-all catch-as-catch-can system in Mexico, with big-rig trucks running at high speeds with blown-out headlamps, no taillights, and trucks which appear to be running in extremely overweight condition. Another thing to expect when driving in Mexico is for the pavement to simply end, and you find yourself suddenly, abrubtly, driving on packed dirt. It's ok (and even maybe fun) if you're in a 4x4 of some kind, but generally is more of a potentially dangerous shock than anything else.
As for brakes and other safety systems --- One California Highway Patrol officer was quoted several months ago, when this 'test' was first proposed, that, "We can barely take care of the trucks on the US side of the border. The only Mexican trucks we'll have the manpower to inspect are those which are either already in an accident, already broken down on the side of the road, or so obviously unsafe that an officer has no choice but to pull them over".
The border crossing at San Ysidro, CA/Tijuana, Mexico, is already the busiest cross-nation border in
the entire world. On a typical day, there are waits of over three hours for the average vehicle. It's faster to walk across or take a taxi or the light rail you can pick up in San Diego, but truckers can't do that. They are bringing themselves and their 80 tons or so of 'whatever' with them.
Add several thousand more big-rig trucks to that mix and there is a health and safety disaster in the making. The Mexican trucks, of course, will be able to use other border crossings in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, but like any other vehicle running on a deadline, they will be crossing at the border nearest to their destination, which, much of the time will probably be in southern California.
How about Mexico's driver testing procedures? Clearly, the rules and the testing in the USA is nowhere strict enough for big-rig drivers as it is, but it gets the job done and most civilian drivers can have a reasonable sense of safety when driving near a big-rig. All that is gone, however, with allowing these Mexican trucks and their drivers on thousands of miles of American roadways.
As one who personally is for an open-border system worldwide (trust, but verify, too), the addition of these thousands of big-rigs and their drivers with out USA-level safety, training and inspections makes me shudder in my driving shoes.
California's Highway 86, which runs from the Coachella Valley (where we live) south along the Salton Sea to the international border crossing at Mexicali/Calexico, is already well-known to police across the nation as possibly the single busiest smuggling route for humans, heroin, methamphetamine (both in and out of Mexico from where it's processed and made in the Palm Springs area) and all other kinds of contraband, now adds to the traffic on that route with thousands and thousands of big-rigs. Apart from the all-too-common deadly accidents on this route, usually involving either big-rigs and/or huge vacation motorhomes, the addition of these new, untested trucks and drivers is a frightening proposition.
This "experiment" may go on for only a year, but the Federal income tax was supposed to last for "only a year" as well, and somehow became permanent. This is an issue well worth your time and energy in calling and contacting all your state and federal representatives, at every level of government, because while we in southern California have suffered for decades with these vehicles and their drivers, this is now a USA-wide problem.
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