Mexican Border Opened to Limited Long-Distance Trucking
Oliver B. Patton
Washington Editor
After six years of legal and diplomatic battles, the Bush administration has found a way to crack open the Mexican border to long-distance trucking.
In doing so, it prompted a pair of hearings on Capitol Hill where long-time opponents of the opening took shots at the plan.
By the end of April, the Department of Transportation expects to start granting access to a chosen group of up to 100 Mexican trucking companies in a year-long pilot program.
This approach is designed to test the system DOT has put in place to ensure that Mexican carriers operate safely, said Transportation Secretary Mary Peters.
The pilot allows for reciprocal privileges. Under the agreement, Mexico is putting together application protocols for U.S. carriers that want to send trucks into Mexico. These protocols should be in place some time this year.
While there is considerable interest in cross-border trucking among Mexican carriers – some 800 have filed applications – fewer than 10 U.S. carriers have applied to go south, Peters said.
Two committees, a joint Mexican-American panel and a group of independent transportation experts, will monitor the pilot program, make reports during the year and make recommendations at the end of the year. At that point DOT would decide whether to make adjustments or open the border fully. Peters said DOT would shut the pilot down if it found systemic safety problems such as a spike in out-of-service rates.
The pilot was made possible by a diplomatic agreement in which U.S. inspectors will be allowed to visit Mexican fleets inside Mexico to audit their safety programs. It was the final piece of a years-long effort by free-trade interests in the U.S. and Mexico to unclog a cumbersome system in which freight must be brought across the border by an intermediary drayage carrier.
Mexican carriers are currently restricted to a narrow operating zone along the border, as are southbound U.S. carriers. Long-distance operations have been stalled ever since they were first prescribed by the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994. Labor unions, safety advocates and some trucking interests kept the border closed for 10 years with legislative, regulatory and legal challenges. In 2004 the Supreme Court cleared away the last legal barrier, but until now the border remained closed while the U.S. and Mexico struggled to come to terms on exactly how the system will work.
In early March FMCSA was still in the process of identifying the 100 Mexican carriers. The agency's aim is to select carriers of different sizes from different areas of Mexico in order to get a representative sampling and to test all border crossings. Hazardous materials and passenger carriers will not be included in the pilot.
The Mexican carriers will be limited to international shipments only – that is, an inbound load from Mexico and an outbound load to return. The same cabotage rules that cover Canadian carriers apply.
The U.S. has a comprehensive set of rules for Mexican carriers that are similar and in some respects tougher than U.S. standards. For instance, in order to qualify for the pilot program, a Mexican carrier will have to clear an on-site safety review by a U.S. inspector.
Under FMCSA's rules, the Mexican company must meet U.S. standards for maintaining performance data and a safety management program, including drug and alcohol testing and hours of service. It also must verify insurance coverage, driver qualifications and operating history. The review will include an interview with company management and verification of the company's maintenance system.
The Mexican trucks will have to display a valid Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance sticker. CVSA sets cooperative truck inspection standards in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
When a Mexican driver comes to cross the border, he must document his schedule for the prior seven days to prove he is adequately rested. In the U.S., he must abide by U.S. hours of service rules. He must have a Licencia Federal, the Mexican equivalent of a U.S. commercial driver's license, must carry proof that he is medically fit and must be able to understand questions and directions in English.
All trucks crossing the border will be weighed. Each Mexican carrier will get a DOT number. And Mexican trucks will only be able to cross where and when a safety inspector is on duty.
Strong Objections
Just two weeks after DOT announced the pilot, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., held hearings. Murray chairs the Senate Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee and is the prime mover behind the current regulatory scheme for Mexican trucks. Her top concern, she told Peters, is that DOT will select only the top Mexican carriers for the pilot "simply to skew the results so the outcome looks better."
Peters replied that the selection of a representative sample of Mexican carriers, in terms of size and location, should prevent that from happening.
Registering vehement opposition to the pilot at the hearing were the Teamsters union, Public Citizen and the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association. On the supporting side were the American Trucking Associations and the National Industrial Transportation League.
The role of referee in this match falls to DOT Inspector General Calvin Scovel, who is charged with providing an objective analysis of DOT's safety program for Mexican carriers.
Scovel told Murray that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has made great progress in putting together a safety scheme, but needs to improve the quality of the data it has on Mexican carriers. It also needs to implement a policy on compliance with truck manufacturing safety standards, and must pay continued attention to drug and alcohol testing.
The latter point was hammered hard by opposing witnesses. Teamsters General President James Hoffa noted that Mexico does not have drug and alcohol testing capabilities. Driver urine samples, for instance, must be sent to the U.S. for analysis. This, he said, makes it nearly impossible to ensure chain-of-custody.
On the House side, Reps. James Oberstar, D-Minn., and Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., scheduled a hearing and asked Scovel to analyze the first six months of the pilot to make sure that the Mexican carriers are in compliance.
"I have serious reservations about this program, and will do all that I can to make sure it does not jeopardize the safety of our nation's highways," said DeFazio, who chairs the House Highway Subcommittee.
Washington Report continued...
