Say What?

Question: Approved Mexican trucks and drivers are now allowed to travel throughout the U.S. Your thoughts?

Robert Hinman, 35, Afton, NY 
Professional driving experience: 15 years   
“I think it’s definitely going to hurt our trucking industry, as far as I can tell. Their equipment isn’t up to par, I believe. It’s going to increase the number of accidents, so when they do their statistics, it’s going to look like big rigs are causing more problems. I just think it’s going to hurt us.”

Matt Ross, 32, Medora, IN  
Professional driving experience: 11 years 
“I don’t know. I liked it the way it was where they had to stay within 10 miles of the border. I just think that’s opening up a can of worms. I think they are going to come up here and cut our freight rates down. I don’t know for sure, but that’s what I think is going to happen.”

Rodney Baker, 36, Phil Campbell, AL 
Professional driving experience: 14 years    
“I don’t like it at all, from my understanding of it. I talked to a driver who drove in Mexico for 12 years and I asked him about some of the standards they have. They run no logbooks. There’s pretty much no such thing as a commercial driver’s license down there. Their standards and our standards are not the same. They’re going to be inspected, but I’m not buying it.”

Jeff Jack, 37, Haleyville, AL  
Professional driving experience: 6 years 
“Personally, I think the border needs to be sealed. Completely. Mexican trucks? No. Most of them haven’t been maintained properly. To me, it’s a safety issue, because they don’t live up to the standards we have to.” 

Patrick Kane, 44, Miami, FL  
Professional driving experience: 12 years  
“I think that if the drivers and their trucks were actually inspected and were truly road-worthy, I don’t see a real big problem with it. I mean the borders have got to open up. It would eliminate some red tape; we could actually get down into Mexico and pick our own loads up, and they can deliver their loads up here. I don’t see a problem with that.”