A cross-border trucker-led convoy will likely be rolling through parts of West Texas on Monday to highlight every part from violence against drivers, low wages to poor working conditions in each Mexico and the U.S., organizers said.
The convoy — a joint motion between the U.S.-based Truckers Movement for Justice (TMJ) and the Mexico-based United Mexican Carriers (TAMEXUN) and the Binational Carriers Union (STB) — will consist of about 75 truckers from either side of the border on a 150-mile trek from Odessa, Texas, through Kermit and Monahans, Texas.
“TMJ, STB and TAMEXUN are fighting for the rights of the drivers to prepare and to barter collectively with trucking firms,” Billy Randel, founding father of TMJ, told FreightWaves in an interview.
Randel and members of TMJ, STB and TAMEXUN said they’re searching for “respect” and “justice” from the trucking industry and wish government motion or changes within the industry.
“In a single word, we would like justice. We’re all talking about justice for truck drivers. We feature the backs of the world on us,” said Jazmin Lovos, a member of TMJ. Lovos and her husband Oscar are truck drivers within the Permian Basin.
The vast majority of drivers participating within the Texas protest are owner-operators working within the oilfields of West Texas or Mexico-based B1 visa drivers hauling goods into the U.S.
Across the border, drivers from Mexico said they are sometimes recruited by U.S.-based trucking firms initially offering pay rates of 30 cents a mile, then later the corporate will reduce a Mexico-based driver’s rate to 19 cents a mile.
“There’s lots of individuals who also care in regards to the 19 cents a mile because they think they’re getting cash with that,” Jesus Chuy, a driver from Mexico and member of STB, said. “The industries get the perfect of Mexican drivers with that.”
Randel said it doesn’t matter which side of the border truckers are from.
“We return to the easy indisputable fact that trucking firms are using our brothers and sisters in Mexico, against our brothers and sisters in america,” Randel said. “Because of this we’ve got the solidarity, an alliance that we built with the TAMEXUN, STB and TMJ, we’ve got to fight.”
Poor working conditions for truck drivers within the U.S.
Oscar Lovos, a member of TMJ, and a number of other other drivers said truckers have faced poor work conditions within the Permian Basin area of West Texas for years.
The Permian Basin is an oil and gas producing area mainly in West Texas, in addition to southeastern Recent Mexico.
The problems drivers within the region face range from low wages, long waits to unload trucks, to firms that don’t pay for fuel surcharges, TMJ members said.
“I’ve been within the oil field for over 11 years, driving within the Permian Basin. The oil field has gone downhill tremendously. Inflation goes high, the worth of oil continues to be high, but yet our wages are going lower and lower,” Lovos said. “It looks like every month they’re going to lower the rates on us. We’re barely surviving because it is.”
Lovo said being an oil field truck driver may be tough physically resulting from the condition of roads within the Permian Basin.
“The roads out listed here are extremely bad. Driving on these roads beat up our trucks, then we’ve got to pay for repairs and no person helps us with the repairs,” Lovo said.
Jazmin Lovo said truck drivers working within the oil fields often get stuck waiting in long lines once they are dropping off shipments. Many shippers within the Permian Basin don’t pay detention or demurrage fees to owner-operators, she said.
“Some days they spend a protracted, very long time unloading the trucks and so they don’t pay detention time or demurrage,” Jazmin Lovo said. “They use our trucks like a storage unit, like a warehouse. But in case you’re going to rent a warehouse to have your stuff, you get charged. But the businesses that hire us to hold the frac sand aren’t paying detention time.
Other complaints include the shortage of adequate restrooms for drivers within the region.
“We’re lucky if they provide us port-a-johns. We demand restrooms which have air con in them. My wife Jazmin is a truck driver. Me as man, I don’t need to go within port-a-john when it’s 100 degrees outside. Do you’re thinking that she desires to go in there? The restrooms they provide aren’t fair, not right,” Oscar Lovo said.
Marco Mery, who drives trucks within the Permian Basin, said the detention times and road conditions cost them money.
“We don’t get any respect,” Mery said. “There’s too many things involved in being a driver. Now we have to pay to be a truck driver, owner-operators, we pay the insurance, the stickers, license plates and every part. All the things is lots of money. And we don’t get that a refund.”
Truck drivers in Mexico face theft and assault on a regular basis
Across the border in Mexico, truck drivers face hijackings, theft, low wages and lack of adequate facilities, corresponding to restrooms and rest areas, members of TAMEXUN and STB said.
“In Mexico, considered one of the most important issues is there is completely no security for the drivers,” Chuy said. “Drivers are routinely beaten every single day. There are trucks stolen from drivers every single day and the National Guard and the federal government in addition to the state governments do nothing to guard the drivers from assaults.”
In the primary five months of 2024, Mexico totaled 700 cargo truck thefts, in line with the National Association of Vehicle Tracking and Protection Firms (ANERPV).
Greater than 65% of cargo robberies involve the usage of violence, in line with ANERPV. The shortage of cargo security is why many Mexican truck drivers decide to get a visa and work within the U.S., Chuy said.
“Drivers get assaulted from each government police in addition to criminals,” Chuy said. “A driver was murdered earlier this 12 months, killed while he was working. It is a struggle. We want respect and we’d like protection of law.”
Once Mexico-based drivers begin working within the U.S., trucking firms often use them to maintain wages lower for U.S. drivers., Chuy said.
“Truck drivers from Mexico are routinely used to push down the wages and dealing conditions of American truck drivers,” Chuy said. “Because of this we formed this alliance. We feel strongly that we’d like to equalize the working conditions for truck drivers in each countries, so we will all have a high quality of life.”
Manuel Mendoza, president of TAMEXUN said truck drivers keep the economies of the U.S. and Mexico moving, but make little or no money.
Truck driver salaries in Mexico averaged $4,400 in 2022.
“The reality is that every single day there’s increasingly more discrimination. Our work is made more humiliating, subjected to the whims of carriers, big businessmen who come from political parties,” Mendoza said. “We wish higher payments for our drivers. We don’t need brokers. We want to deal directly with the shippers in order that we’ve got a greater life.”
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