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Re: Judge rules for UP in border drug dispute
Author: Dr Zarkoff
Date: 12-20-2011 - 17:41
Well for one, with a truck, there are only one or two boxes (trailers), so inspection is a rather simple process. So is the determination of culpability. On a tain there can be hundreds of containers and/or trailers. Now it becomes a question of the practicality of looking inside each container as they are put on the train. Sure, hire a bunch of inspectors but don't forget they're all to human and susceptible to bribery. So what do you gain by hiring the inspectors? It's been RR practise for what, 150 years, to accept what the shipper says is in the boxcar or container.
About 20 years ago, there was a case of questionable types in Mexico shipping copper centavos to a scrapyard in Chicago. The only way it was discovered occurred when the alledgedly "empty" container was loaded on top of a really empty one, and the car tipped over on a curve, causing a derailment (on the SP). There is an international treaty concerned with the illegal shipping of specie of all kinds, and this was what was used to nail the perpetrators on both sides of the border.
About 20 years ago, there was a case of questionable types in Mexico shipping copper centavos to a scrapyard in Chicago. The only way it was discovered occurred when the alledgedly "empty" container was loaded on top of a really empty one, and the car tipped over on a curve, causing a derailment (on the SP). There is an international treaty concerned with the illegal shipping of specie of all kinds, and this was what was used to nail the perpetrators on both sides of the border.
