Safety Systems In Place For Mexico Border Opening

OLIVER B. PATTON
WASHINGTON EDITOR

      The Bush administration cleared another hurdle in its race to open the Mexican border to long-distance trucking this summer.
      Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta expects to certify that new border safety systems are in place and working by August. The actual opening requires action by President Bush, who must lift the moratorium on north-south trucking beyond the commercial zone along the border.
      The key development was a finding by Kenneth Mead, the Inspector General of the Department of Transportation, that regulators have made "substantial progress" toward installing the safety systems ordered by Congress.
      Mead said there will be personnel, facilities and information links in place at most of the 25 commercial border crossings by the end of July.
      He said that the agency in charge of cross-border trucking, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, has been diligent and he is confident they will get the job done.
      There still is strong political opposition to opening the border. Safety groups such as Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety said Mead's report does not address many shortcomings in the Bush administration's plan. And Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., declared that "There is not a ghost of a chance" that long-haul Mexican trucks will be safe when they come across the border.
      But the key opponent of DOT's original plan to open the border, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., indicated she is satisfied with the work done so far. It has limited the number of Mexican applicants to those who are "really prepared" to meet U.S. safety requirements, she said.
      It was Murray who last fall forced DOT to adopt stricter safety requirements than it originally intended.
      She pushed through a plan that requires Mexican applicants to clear a safety audit before they can get a cross-border permit. In addition, DOT must have trained inspectors on duty at the crossings, and provide room for inspections and trucks that have been placed out of service. DOT also has to make sure that border officials are able to electronically verify Mexican driver licenses.
      Mead's investigation — also required by the plan — found that FMCSA has been diligent.
      By the end of July, for example, the agency will have hired 198 of the 214 new border inspectors needed to perform driver and truck inspections, and manage safety exams. It still has to hire the safety investigators who will conduct compliance reviews of the Mexican carriers — but it has 18 months before those reviews have to be done.
      By the end of June, 23 of the 25 border crossings were equipped with space for inspections and for parking trucks that have been ordered out of service, as well as office space and telecommunications links. The two other crossings — Tecate and Andrade in California — are expected to be up to grade by mid-August.
      One problem, according to Mead's report, is an inconsistency between federal and state laws concerning operating a truck without proper authority. Federal officials are authorized to put a truck out of service if it does not have operating authority. But police in most states do not have that authority because their state legislatures have not passed conforming laws. Only California and Arizona have that law right now.
      States are supposed to make the correction by October 2003, or risk losing federal highway money. But state legislatures may be slow to act, and DOT may try to fix the problem by adding authority violations to the list of out-of-service criteria. Meanwhile, FMCSA is asking state police to get in touch with its inspectors when they encounter a truck without authority.
      There will not be an avalanche of long-distance Mexican carriers into the U.S. As of early July, FMCSA had 41 applicants. The admission process is demanding — intentionally so, in order to discourage companies that are not serious about meeting safety standards (see sidebar on page 38).
      FMCSA chief Joseph Clapp said he expects that most of the initial applications will be for transit to port facilities, such as Long Beach, Calif.
      There will be many more applications for traditional cross-border drayage operations, since all existing carriers will have to re-apply.
      Mead's agency will perform another audit of the safety system within six months of the border opening. Meanwhile, the Inspector General told Congress that the safety agency should provide weekly status reports, and regular assessments of how the situation is changing.

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