Editor Lost in Interpretation
I have always enjoyed your articles until now. [In reference to your October Editor's Journal, "Lost in Translation"], have you finally been bought by special interests? Or did you rush into researching for this piece? I called OOIDA and found that the average age of Mexican trucks is 1994. The average age of American trucks is 2001. Have you ever wondered where all the cabovers have gone? You need to travel to Mexico, my friend. You see plenty of them on the side of the highways broken down.

While I am sorry for your mother’s untimely death, had she been killed by a Mexican carrier, your chances for any litigation would be extremely limited. Mexican courts and insurance companies don’t work like ours.

You never touched on the fact that parking is in short supply, they are not set up to use the card readers at truckstops (longer lines) or the problems of drug trafficking, which is a huge problem in Mexico. The cheap shot you took at OOIDA makes me believe you are out of touch with the issue and the trucking industry. You write about it, we live it. That’s why the overwhelming majority of us are against this.
Michael A. Lee
Oregon City, Ore.

Editor’s note: Editor Randy Grider has traveled to Mexico three times in recent years to witness the border situation first-hand.

Bad Experience with Mexican Drivers
This is what I say about Mexicans crossing the border and delivering freight inside the United States: I work for a company that has a terminal in Laredo, Texas. We have always had trucks cross the border and drive into our facility, go through inspection, park our trailer, and steal every thing that was within the driver’s reach. When it was traced back to that driver, they got smart and switched to the next trailer. Every light or glad hand rubber was removed.

Now I know it’s racist to say that every Mexican was doing this, but enough were doing it that I always had to replace those items. I can’t tell you how many trailers come over with one or more inside tires showing steel. When we changed to the X1 tire, such a roar was heard one would think we declared war on our neighbor to the south.