Hoffa says IG report shows Mexican border should remain closed

Wednesday’s report noted the FMCSA had met six of the eight criteria and had “substantially” met two others — having adequate capacity at the southern border to conduct meaningful inspections and having sufficient databases to allow safety monitoring of Mexican carriers and drivers.

The Trucker News Services

9/4/2009

WASHINGTON — Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa said Thursday that an inspector general report shows once and for all that the border should remain closed to unsafe Mexican trucks.

The report, issued Wednesday, covers eight safety criteria related to Mexico-domiciled motor carriers potentially operating beyond narrow commercial zones along the border.

The criteria were established in a FY2002 appropriations act as was a requirement that the inspector general periodically analyze whether the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration was meeting the criteria.

The inspector general made five recommendations on how better to meet those two criteria.

A pilot program to allow Mexican trucks on U.S. highways began in September 2007 and ended in March 2009 when Congress, with bipartisan support, cut off funding for it.

States are responsible for reporting convictions of Mexican driver’s license holders to the Mexican Conviction Database (MCDB), the IG said, but despite having told FMCSA in an August 2007 audit that there was improvement needed, the report said, “states continue to inconsistently report traffic convictions” of Mexican license holders.

"This new report raises even more alarms about opening our border to unsafe trucks from Mexico and endangering the lives of drivers in the United States," Hoffa said.

In her response to the report, the FMCSA’s acting deputy administrator, Rose A. McMurray, seemed to point to a long-standing U.S. concern about the Mexican government’s ability to manage the database.

“The MCDB is not statutorily required and the states are not required to report convictions of Mexican federal commercial driver’s license (CDL) holders to the MCDB,” she wrote. “As a result, while the data provides potentially useful information to program managers, trends in the MCDB are not necessarily indicative of the quality or uniformity of enforcement actions.

“Therefore, FMCSA cautions against drawing conclusions relating to enforcement on the border based on trends in this data. In light of existing limitations with the MCDB data, FMCSA has ongoing efforts to enhance data quality for the MCDB. While FMCSA’s quality control plan has already improved reporting of traffic convictions by the states to the MCDB, FMCSA is pursuing further improvements to evaluate traffic conviction reporting trends and data reporting inconsistencies.”

The inspector general also reported that the program diverted border officials from inspecting passenger buses. In El Paso, for example, the number of bus inspections fell by 80 percent.

At some California and Texas crossings, passenger buses are still not inspected when they cross the border on evenings, weekends or holidays because there are no inspectors working those shifts.

"This report shows without a doubt that opening the border to Mexican trucks and buses puts an unacceptable strain on our border resources," Hoffa said. "Federal officials couldn't keep up with inspections when there were only 118 trucks in the pilot program. If the border were opened to all Mexican trucks, border inspection stations would be completely overwhelmed."

The report, dated Aug. 17, said that the shift in border inspectors should "call into question whether FMCSA's border staff could meet the bus inspection demands that may occur if the border were to open to a large number of Mexican long-haul trucks and buses."

Hoffa said that Mexican trucks should not be allowed to travel on U.S. highways until the U.S. implements a comprehensive inspection program and the Mexican government ensures that hours-of-service rules are enforced, that Mexican drivers meet the same qualifications as U.S. drivers and that drug and alcohol testing facilities are brought up to U.S. standards.

The Mexican government slapped tariffs on $2.4 billion worth of goods after the pilot program was shut down. Hoffa said the retaliatory tariffs are unfair and disproportionate.

"Anyone who drives on U.S. roads should be required to obey U.S. safety laws," Hoffa said. "The Mexican government is wrong if it thinks NAFTA should give it the right to send dangerous trucks onto our highways. Mexico must meet its end of the bargain. For the last 15 years, it hasn't even tried. The U.S. Trade Representative should be challenging these unfair tariffs."

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

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