Everything but the squeal …

By Advance Business Capital

As irresponsible sensationalist journalists, those of us at Blog4Truckers (well, all right, one of us at B4T) must express our disappointment in the general lack of rancor and hysteria at the impending resumption of the Mexican long-haul pilot program. Can’t we all just not get along? Or at least not get along long enough to write a decent sound-and-fury type column?

The Sound and the Unfury

Not that there aren’t a few hot accusations flying back and forth. According to Todd Spencer, Executive Vice-President of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, American truckers are “outraged.” Spencer goes on to say that, “For all the president’s talk of helping small businesses survive, his administration is sure doing their best to destroy small trucking companies and the drivers they employ.” Good start, Todd.

James Hoffa Jr., president of the International Brotherhood of the Teamsters, is presumably just as upset but more low-key. “This deal puts Americans at risk. It caves into business interests at the expense of the traveling public and American workers.” Frankly, Jim Jr., we find this disappointingly restrained. Jimmy Senior must be rolling in his grave, wherever that is.

Saving Their Ammo

To be fair, since resumption of the pilot program is still only an administration “proposal,” put forward in the most tentative of terms, Spencer and Hoffa may be saving their verbal ammo for later. If the U.S. and Mexico actually get close to….

BREAKING NEWS… BREAKING NEWS… BREAKING NEWS…. BREAKING

We interrupt this blog to report that Mexican President Luis Calderon has visited the White House to discuss resumption of Mexican trucker long-haul privileges. After their discussion, Calderon and President Obama appeared at a joint press conference to announce the successful resolution of the long-standing dispute. The Administration says it hopes to have the deal ready for a public signing in sixty days. Now back to our regular blogcast.

To resume, what’s surprising about the unsurprising protests over this decision is the absence of, well, white-hot rage. On the hospital smiley-face pain scale, we’d give Spencer and Hoffa’s rhetoric a “4” at best. Compare their remarks to this transcript of a YouTube video made by “That Guy from Boston” in 2007, when President Bush announced the first pilot program, which—in case you don’t know—was limited to a token 100 Mexican trucking companies.

Dah Guy from Boston

To set the stage, That Guy from Boston was (and maybe still is) an enormous middle-aged teamster in a black shirt with a pompadour of oily black hair and a cigar it would take a normal man two hands to hold. He sat in front of an American flag and SHOUTED his message at the camera, aggressively jabbing the cigar as if he was auditioning for The Sopranos.

Guy from Boston: “HEY! It’s That Guy from Boston again! And you KNOW I’m p*****! You know WHY? F*** this NAFTA superf****** HIGHWAY! What the f*** is the matter with you, George W. f****** BUSH? You make the American f****** TRUCKER get federally licensed, get the CDO test, make me go through ALL KINDS of f****** s***! And THEN whaddaya do? You let the f******* MEXICANS come through the f****** BORDER! I don’t GET it! We build this country for a HUNDRED f****** years! And you let in MEXICAN trucks! And f*** f****** CONGRESS too! And f*** this F*** NAFTA b******! I don’t f****** GIVE a g****** f*** for ANY of this c********* b******, you p***** because I’m SO p***** I’ve HAD it UP to MY a** with THIS f******* s***, so–“

At this point the video abruptly ended. Maybe they ran out of tape or maybe the Guy from Boston had a stroke. We hope not the latter because with a little coaching he could have a big f****** future in talk radio, probably without benefit of microphone.

Dah Other Guys

Perhaps because times are no longer quite as desperate as two years ago, nobody on either side now seems as froth-at-the-mouth furious. Compare Guy from Boston’s full-volume fury with the milquetoast sarcasm of Mexico Trucker Online:

Mexico Trucker Online: “Let’s see if I’ve got this right. James P. Hoffa of the Teamsters and Todd Spencer of OOIDA are correct in their opinions of Mexican trucks, but 1400 plus trade associations, newspaper editors and business groups are wrong? And the aforementioned duo “speaks” for the “majority” of Americans? I think not.”

Or the ho-hum moderation of a recent editorial in the San Antonio Express News:

SA Express News: “The self-inflicted wound of a trade war with Mexico would be futile any time. It’s particularly harmful during a recession. It’s also completely unnecessary. Once the trucks start moving, so will U.S. exports. The United States needs to comply with its NAFTA commitments.”

Even the American Trucking Associations, which can usually be counted on to lob a rock with a message through the Oval Office window, was politely positive about the policy shift.

ATA President Bill Graves: “The ATA is pleased that Presidents Obama and Calderon and their administrations have worked through their differences and have put our two countries on the path to resolving this issue after nearly sixteen years. We hope this agreement will be a first step to increasing trade between our two countries, more than 70% of which crosses the border by truck.”

This, incidentally, represents a reversal of ATA’s previous opposition to the pilot program.  We don’t know the reason for ATA’s policy shift but it may be due to the last two years of putative tariffs that Mexico has put on a variety of U.S. goods—particularly pork, potatoes, chocolate and wine—which have cost this country around $5 billion. As part of the new border deal, Mexico will be eliminating its tariffs, a prospect that has had an immediate and positive impact on the mood of American exporters. We know this because—as we always do before going to print (or rather, pixel)—we consulted our bible of business news, NASDAQ’s Morning Hog Report, the leading resource for financial forecasters. We quote:

Morning Hog Market Report 3/4/2011: “April hogs and June hogs traded sharply higher on the session early on light volume. Reports that the Mexico/US trade dispute could be settled soon, which would result in increased exports to Mexico, were thought to have supported solid gains on the close. The hope that Mexican import levels would improve if the current trucking dispute is resolved was seen as supporting the turnaround yesterday. Hog traders are cautiously optimistic.”

That Squealing Noise You Hear Is Pigs Going South

As the hog market goes, so goes Texas, which in 2008 exported $3.8 billion in agricultural goods to Mexico. Republican Senator John Cornyn, no friend of the current administration, is pleased with the Obama-Calderon deal, saying: “It’s about time to break this impasse and find a new way to create jobs and drive revenue for Texas and the nation.”

David Humphrey, spokesman for Arkansas-based ABF Freight System—one of the most venerable names in long-haul trucking—is in agreement. "This new agreement means Mexican companies will have to meet the same requirements we do, especially safety and environmental. This will also open up Mexico for American truckers. We think it’s good for both countries.” 

Of course, Humphrey speaks for trucking management, not drivers, but presumably what’s good for American trucking companies will benefit drivers as well. Or so we hope. Regardless of Teamster and OOIDA opposition, the new agreement appears to be a done deal. It’s another step in the administration’s emphasis on growing American exports. 

Going Whole Hog4Truckers

At B4T, our emotions are mixed. While as working journalists, we deplore the absence of opportunities for screaming headlines in the US-Mexico agreement, as responsible citizens and advocates for the American trucking community we want to see it work. If it does, it will mean a boost for the U.S. economy, better relations for both countries and more jobs for truckers on either side of the border. We withhold final judgment, but for right now we follow the lead of pork traders and believe the new program is whole hog4truckers. 

This story was drawn from articles in The Fort Smith City Wire, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Landline, PR Newswire, San Antonio Express-News, Mexico Trucker Online, Truck Driver News, MetaCafe - The Guy from Boston, and NASDAQ Morning Hog Report  

This article is provided as a service for truckers and everyone in the trucking industry by Advance Business Capital. ABC is the first and only factoring service designed by truckers for truckers. We provide innovative financial solutions exclusively to For-Hire truckers and Freight Brokers and are proud to be the first factoring company to receive the P3 (Preferred Platinum Provider) endorsement from the Transportation Intermediaries Association.

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