Safety group offers LaHood criteria for a Mexico truck plan

Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety (AHAS) was one of several participants in a meeting Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood scheduled to obtain input from the trucking industry and other stakeholders on how a new Mexico truck program should be structured.

The Trucker Staff

4/2/2009

WASHINGTON — The establishment and conduct of a pilot program or demonstration project allowing Mexico-domiciled long-haul trucks to travel beyond the commercial boarder zones and throughout the U.S. must be designed to protect public safety to the maximum extent and conducted with complete transparency and public involvement, the organization Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety (AHAS) told Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood Wednesday.

AHAS was one of several participants in a meeting LaHood scheduled to obtain input from the trucking industry and other stakeholders on how a new Mexico truck program should be structured.

The group gave LaHood a list of principles in to ensure maximum public safety.

Among them:

• Provision of prior notice and opportunity for public comment before taking actions or making determinations regarding the design, safety criteria and all other aspects of the pilot program, and

• Pilot program driver logbooks as records-of-duty status should not been deemed equivalent demonstration of compliance with U.S. Hours of Service requirements. AHAS said any commercial motor vehicle entering the U.S. should be equipped with an electronic on-board recorder that is integrated with the vehicle’s electronic control module to collect real-time vehicle location, speed, routing and participating commercial driver HOS information that accurately reflects working, driving and off-duty time for each shift and each tour of duty.

AHAS told the secretary that each driver and commercial motor vehicle participating in a pilot program should undergo a comprehensive vehicle and driver safety inspection using criteria adopted by the Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Alliance and that every vehicle that comes into the U.S. should comply with all Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations.

AHAS offered in the four-page report presented to LaHood and DOT other guidelines it said the administration should follow in developing the program.

Those included:

• Application of recognized scientific research design and data collection methods

• Utilizing a transparent, objective, unbiased pilot program design and implementation

• Identification of differences between U.S. and Mexico statutes and regulations governing motor carrier operations, and

• Preparation of a report at the end of the project on the finding and proposed recommendations of the pilot program that is published for public comment, and after due consideration of public comment and making any appropriate modifications to the findings of the final report, send the final report to Congress together with the agencies’ recommendations and make the final report available to the public.

AHAS would not comment on the meeting, which it called private.