After being cancelled earlier this year, the pilot program allowing Mexican trucks to carry cargo on U.S. roads may be back on. This is due to a six billion dollar lawsuit aimed at the U.S. government as well as the steep tariffs imposed on U.S. goods as punishment. Industries on both sides of the border have been calling for resolution.

The program was a long delayed response to NAFTA’s call for the creation of a trans-border trucking program to exist by the year 2000 and represents the first step toward compliance. For many, this news raises concern over the safety issues that initially delayed the project.

In 1995, the government responded to concerns that Mexican trucks could not pass U.S. safety checks by restricting them to designated commercial zones within twenty miles of the border. Goods destined for other areas of the U.S. and Canada were required to be transferred to new trucks to continue their journey. The safety issues in question are related to Department of Transportation studies that show forty one percent of Mexican trucks did not pass safety checks in 1998. In comparison, there is a twenty five percent failure rate for U.S. trucks and a seventeen percent failure rate for Canadian trucks. But these failures seem to be primarily related to certification, logbook issues, and English language fluency rather than poor equipment. When a meeting was called earlier this year to address these concerns, the American Trucking Association noted that the pilot program was working fine.

Times are hard for everyone, including the trucking industry. Despite it all there are a few bright spots. The first is that economists are saying that we have reached our lowest point and that the economy will now begin to recover slowly, but surely. That’s great news for the future, but how to hold on until then?

Unlike many other industries, shipping cannot be outsourced. Goods will always need to be moved from one location to another. The key is to be the one moving those goods and to make money doing it. Fortunately for the trucking industry, diesel prices continue to be low, helping to keep the costs of carrying low as well. What else can you do?

*Find as many ways as possible to cut costs. Be creative and efficient. One carrier keeps a coffeemaker on boards to reduce his need for stops.

*Use whatever sources necessary to secure a constant volume of work, in order to keep your gross income flowing. Load boards are a good source of postings.

*Diversify. Take on anything and everything you can to keep your truck full and moving.

Remember that although recent numbers say that industries outside of trucking are still losing position, truck-driving jobs remain in demand. This is despite furloughs and temporary hiring freezes. The key to success is to hold on and plan for the future.

A recent study was published in The American Journal of Health attributing 12, 545 traffic fatalities to higher speed limits implemented between 19995 and 2005. It is an undisputed fact that in a collision driving speed increases impact speed. The faster the involved vehicles are going, the worse the crash. And so the study calls for lowered speed limits on the national level, claiming they will not only save lives, but lower gas consumption and reduce emissions. But the study only tells one part of the story.

Research suggests that the problem may be more complicated than that. Studies by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety have shown that accidents and deaths increase when speed limits for all vehicles are raised. What about when speed limits for trucks are raised? There are eleven states in the U.S. that post different speed limits for cars and truckers. These differences seem trivial to the average driver (who, studies show, frequently exceeds the speed limit), but the long haul driver is heavily penalized by them. Not only do these lower limits represent a lowered income potential, studies are showing that they also represent an increased risk of collision. At high speeds, deviation from the average speed of traffic makes you a magnet for accidents.

Truckers report that, in an effort to avoid being slowed, drivers are engaging in risky, accident-prone behavior. The research backs them up. The roads are simply safer if everyone drives at the same speed.