(NewsNation) — There is a growing controversy taking shape along U.S. highways as American truckers claim they’re being undercut by foreign drivers through a practice known as “cabotage.”
By law, Mexican and Canadian drivers can bring freight across the border and back, but aren’t allowed to pick up deliveries within the U.S. According to Chris Spear, President and CEO of the American Trucking Associations, some foreign drivers are increasingly breaking the rules and are delivering loads domestically in the U.S., costing American drivers their jobs.
“Shady carriers, employers, businesses are taking that Mexican driver out of the truck, putting it in their truck and moving loads domestically. That’s illegal. It’s cabotage. Those loads are reserved for U.S. drivers,” Spear told NewsNation.
According to Spear, the Trump administration is trying to crack down on this practice that he claims has become widespread.
“We believe it’s a practice that’s surging,” Spear said. “We’ve been communicating with the secretaries of homeland security as well as transportation, to really focus our resources on this practice and go after the shady carriers in the U.S. that are illegally using these drivers to move domestic freight.”
Spear said the practice is quite profitable as foreign drivers are paid much less, but nevertheless, it needs to stop.
“It’s a fairness issue, and we just simply cannot continue to undercut loads that are reserved for U.S. domestic drivers,” Spear said.