http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20070707-9999-1b7mextrucks.htmlOnline: To view comments that have been filed and government documents relating to the cross-border trucking program, go to
http://dms.dot.gov. Click on “simple search” and under “docket search,” enter the docket number 28055.
To submit a comment, go to
https://dms.dot.gov/submit/. You will be asked to register and to provide the docket number 28055.
Worries about safety, smuggling are listed
By Paul M. Krawzak
COPLEY NEWS SERVICE
July 7, 2007
WASHINGTON – Critics appear as full-throated as ever in their opposition to a Bush administration plan to open the nation's highways to Mexican trucks, according to a review of public comments collected so far by the federal government.
More than 2,100 people had submitted comments to the Transportation Department as of yesterday, and almost all expressed displeasure with a proposed one-year pilot project that could begin later this year.
Among the concerns: worries that the Mexican carriers' trucks would be unsafe, that they could be used to smuggle drugs into the United States and that they would imperil the income of U.S. truckers.
“I think that if this project goes through it would create severe problems with drug trafficking and terrorism,” wrote Nicholas Louya of Thomasville, N.C. “I am a small businessman with two trucks of my own. This industry is already a struggle. This would crush the little man. . . . I also see problems with the safety of all affected. I don't think the local governments have the means to enforce this properly.”
Far less representative of the comments was this optimistic one from Joe Peters, who provided no address: “I have read most of the comments and found that most fellow drivers have no idea of how U.S. Customs officials operate when a truck reaches their commercial facilities. . . . Customs and Border Protection officials are the most prepared and have the latest technology to find drugs in the world.”
The Transportation Department extended the deadline for comments until the close of business Monday.
FULL story at link.