Letters to the Editor

This is in regard to your April 18 issue, which includes an article about the Transportation Intermediaries Association, American Trucking Associations and the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association all supporting a broker surety bill.

It is evident to me that the bigger 3PLs are adding trucks to their array of services because there are fewer trucks on the road.

Thank you for your March 21 cover story, “Vets Make Valuable Employees, Several Motor Carriers Report.” There is no greater testament to the value that our military veterans bring to our industry than from those carriers with firsthand experience attracting, hiring and supporting them as they develop careers in transportation.

To improve our scores with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Compliance, Safety, Accountability program, many of us have worked diligently to put electronic onboard recorders in our trucks.

If FMCSA can pay for the Mexican trucks to have EOBRs, why not U.S. trucks? Our government is helping out others and yet not putting or keeping the money here in the good old United States of America.

Just so I can get this straight, now: We are allowing Mexican trucks to come into the United States as cross-border operations — almost a done deal. Then, FMCSA is going to pay for EOBRs to be placed in those Mexican trucks to do business in the United States, while requiring U.S. fleets to purchase EOBRs with company money?

Once again, we look at possibly placing the responsibility for safety on trucking companies and/or trailer manufacturers in order to allow for the unsafe, reckless, inattentive driving of motorists.

Not all truckers are the longhaul, cross-country, gone-way-too-long operators everyone seems to see in their mind’s eye. However, the proposals FMCSA has had to come up with now to fix a system that works well affects all drivers.

No one knows the Canada-U.S. border and the difficulties even the most trusted individuals and companies have had crossing it in the “security trumps trade” post-9/11 world than truckers. It’s not surprising, then, that truckers welcome the announcement from U.S. President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper that the two countries are embarking upon negotiations aimed at improved cooperation and coordination at the border.

I don’t understand how the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Compliance, Safety, Accountability program got going without all the pitfalls being known ahead of time.