Transportes Olympic for 2nd time to be first to cross border in pilot program

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration in a noticed published Thursday said it had granted long-haul operating authority to Transportes Olympic, but was withholding operating authority to Grupo Behr.

By LYNDON FINNEY
The Trucker Staff

10/13/2011

WASHINGTON — Transportes Olympic, the first Mexico-domiciled carrier to participate in the original cross-border pilot program, will be the first to cross the border under the new pilot program, The Trucker learned Thursday.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration in a noticed published Thursday said it had granted long-haul operating authority to Transportes Olympic, but was withholding operating authority to Grupo Behr.

A spokesman for Transportes Olympic told The Trucker Thursday morning that the carrier had just received official notice of the approval and that it is possible the first truck could cross the border next week.

Both Transportes Olympic and Grupo Behr passed the agency’s Pre-Authorization Safety Audits (PASA) in August, but federal regulations require the FMCSA to open the public docket for comments before final authority is granted.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

ADVERTISEMENT

THE RECENT INCREASE IN FREIGHT VOLUME MEANS NEW JOB OPPORTUNITIES ON GOTRUCKERS.COM. CLICK FOR MORE DETAILS.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The FMCSA said it received 11 timely comments on the two carriers, seven in support of the PASA results. Four comments questioned the approval, many of which questioned Grupo Behr’s safety record.

As a result, the FMCSA said it was granting Transportes Olympic long-haul operating authority, but would conduct additional reviews of Grupo Behr before granting the carrier its long-haul authority.

Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety (AHAS), the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters were the groups questioning Grupo Behr’s ability to safety operate within the stipulations of the pilot project.

AHAS and the Teamsters pointed out that Grupo Behr’s out-of-service rate is 28.6 percent, which is higher than the national average of 20.7 percent. In addition, both commenters noted that Grupo Behr’s vehicle maintenance rating is 45.8 percent. AHAS further noted that Grupo Behr had 40 vehicle violations in the 24 months prior to August 26.

OOIDA indicated that publicly-available information indicates that Grupo Behr has an inadequate safety history.

OOIDA researched the vehicle identification numbers from inspections reports and questioned if Grupo Behr would be using a 1991 Class 8 Freightliner, which does not

comply with the EPA requirement for vehicles of model year 1998 or later.

OOIDA questioned the safety data collected on Grupo Behr’s straight trucks and asked how this is affected by SMS segmentation. In addition, OOIDA challenged the

accuracy of Grupo Behr’s vehicle BASIC and alleged that the event group — the group of carriers that Grupo Behr is compared against in SMS — “watered down” their scores.

Overall, OOIDA concluded that Grupo Behr’s inspections indicate a lack of systemic maintenance.

AHAS asked if the drivers and vehicles to be used in the pilot program had been subject to any of Grupo Behr’s out-of-service orders and the Teamsters noted that Grupo Behr’s insurance history has a period between July 2007 and April 2010 where “cancelled” is listed six times. Based on this information, the union questioned if Grupo Behr will be able to obtain and maintain its insurance.

The agency said OOIDA’s question of how PASAs could be completed so soon after the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) published its Aug. 22 report citing concerns about the Agency’s PASA process (and before FMCSA had submitted its report to Congress in response to the OIG report) was moot because the OIG did not question the PASA process.

“As both the Grupo Behr and Transportes Olympic PASAs were conducted in Mexico, the question raised by the OIG was not at issue,” the FMCSA said.

To read the complete Federal Register notice, click here.

Lyndon Finney of The Trucker staff maybe contacted to comment at editor@thetrucker.com.