OOIDA: legal issues need to be settled before new Mexico program is developed

OOIDA President Jim Johnston said the organization wants to make sure the administration doesn't use invalid data in developing new program. (Courtesy OOIDA)

The Trucker News Services

4/3/2009

GRAIN VALLEY, Mo. — The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association has asked a federal court for a ruling on the association’s legal challenge to the just ended Cross Border Demonstration Project.

“We want to make sure that the exceptions granted by the Bush administration are ruled as illegal and considered invalid so they do not get used again in future programs allowing Mexican trucks to operate throughout the United States,” Jim Johnston, OOIDA president, said today.

In a letter to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, OOIDA argued that unless a ruling is handed down on the lawfulness of that program, then the government could use invalid data to support a more expansive cross-border trucking program.

OOIDA contends that former DOT Secretary Mary E. Peters had unlawfully granted Mexico-based motor carriers exceptions to following U.S. safety regulations.   

The court had asked the parties of the lawsuit to file short briefs about the effect on the litigation of Congress’s action to pull funding for the pilot program.

Other parties to the suit, including the Teamsters and Sierra Club, told the court that this Congressional action, and the DOT’s subsequent termination of the pilot program, rendered the legal action “moot,” no longer requiring a decision by the court, Johnston said.

However, OOIDA disagrees, believing that the issue is still relevant and a decision from the court could benefit future programs by setting standards for safety and security.

Johnston referred to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which says the United States was not required to make exceptions for safety and security.

“Those exceptions should never have been made and Mexico should be expected to raise its standards before its trucks are allowed full access to all our highways,” he said.

Language in the recently enacted omnibus spending bill ended the Mexico pilot project, and President Barack Obama has tasked the DOT with the responsibility of developing some type of new program.

Johnston was one several trucking industry stakeholders who participated earlier this week in a meeting called by current DOT Secretary Ray LaHood to gather input on the development of a new program.

The Trucker staff can be reached to comment on this article at editor@thetrucker.com.