FMCSA clears trucks for long-haul operations between U.S., Mexico

Trucks enter the U.S. from Mexico drive along State Route 905, Thursday, Sept. 6,in San Diego. (Associated Press photo)

By KEVIN JONES
The Trucker Staff

9/7/2007

Though the lengthy and hardly direct procedural run between intent and implementation may have come to end, DOT still faces a long uphill pull as Congress, trucker groups, highway safety advocates and anti-immigration forces each have promised to continue to fight the Bush Administration initiative.

“This long-awaited project will protect public safety on American highways as we work to both save consumers' money and help our economy,” said John Hill, administrator for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the DOT agency charged with managing the American side of the two-way trade street.

Specifically, DOT’s year-long “demonstration project” will authorize up to 100 Mexico-based carriers to deliver and pick up international freight outside the current border zone. In the first 30 days of the program, 17 trucking companies from Mexico will be given operating authority, FMCSA reported, with more companies to be added each month as they pass the agency’s inspection process. The program is a necessary component of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

Despite FMCSA’s insistence that the incoming rigs and drivers will be held to all the same standards as American trucks and truckers, opponents contend the plan opens the border to plenty of problems along with the commerce.

“It may be called a pilot program, but anyone who understands the full scope knows it’s a pre-ordained plan to fully open our borders, all in the name of economics and cheap labor,” said Todd Spencer, executive vice president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association. Spencer joined U.S. Representatives James Oberstar, Peter DeFazio and Nancy Boyda — who have led the opposition to the program in the House — along with the Teamsters and others in a press conference earlier on Sept. 6 to appeal to the Senate to continue the fight.

"This is a sad day for America.  Mexican trucks pose a serious threat to the safety of our highways and the security of our country,” said DeFazio, an Oregon Democrat. “This Administration is hell-bent on opening up our borders but has failed to require that Mexican drivers and trucks meet the same safety and security standards as U.S. drivers and trucks.  That's simply unacceptable.  The Administration is essentially adopting a faith-based paper system without adequate protections for public safety."

DeFazio chairs the House Subcommittee on Highways and Transit, and authored an amendment to a transportation appropriation package that would deny funds for the project.

Also, in May, the House voted 411-3 to pass the Safe American Roads Act of 2007, separate, stand-alone legislation to extend the program to three years and further delay it. Most significantly, it would ensure that DOT establishes a process to analyze the impact of allowing Mexican trucks beyond the border zone.

And another amendment, which was passed and enacted as part of a war appropriations package, called for an additional round of oversight by the Inspector General and public comment, which has delayed the launch over the summer.

"I will continue to push the Senate to act, as the House did, to prevent this program from going forward," DeFazio continued.  "The safety of the traveling public must come first  — before the Administration's fantasies about free trade."

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., said he would offer an amendment similar to DeFazio's when the Senate takes up the transportation spending bill, probably next week.

"I think they are exhibiting an arrogance that is pretty unbelievable," Dorgan said of the administration. "They've given short shrift to all objections, rushing to allow Mexican long haul trucks into this country."

But Hill said the program should be given a chance to run because every Mexican truck has to meet the same standard as U.S. trucks.

"Every time we get close to fulfilling requirements for what Congress told us to do originally with implementation of NAFTA, there seems to be additional requirements put on to this program," he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.