OOIDA questions granting pilot project authority to Mexico carrier

Grupo Behr is one of two Mexico-domociled carrier that have passed the PASA.

The Trucker Staff

9/27/2011

GRAIN VALLEY, Mo. — The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association has taken the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to task in the wake of the agency granting operating authority to Grupo Behr to participate in the new cross border pilot program.

Among other issues, OOIDA questioned (1) how the FMCSA could complete a Pre-Authorization Safety Audit (PASA) so soon after the Department of Transportation’s own Office of the Inspector General reported the FMCSA had yet to devise a plan for conducting PASA’s under the pilot project and (2) how did FMCSA “pass” Grupo Behr given publicly available information that suggests the carrier’s lone tractor is a 1991 model that is considered a “junker.”

OOIDA filed its comments on Sept. 22 in response to a Federal Register notice published Sept. 12 by the FMCSA seeking comments the Mexico-domiciled carrier.

Two days later, the FMCSA posted a notice that it had approved Tranportes Olympic for the program. An OOIDA spokesperson said the agency was reviewing the Transportes Olympic approval, but was not sure then it would comment.

“How could FMCSA conduct a PASA of Grupo Behr on Aug. 25 and 26 with the serious lack of preparation identified by the IG just one week before?” OOIDA asked in its comments. “The possibility of such speedy progress in correcting such deficiencies is even more doubtful given the agency’s assertion reported by the IG that ‘they had previously informed us in April and May 2011 that they did not plan to conduct reviews in Mexico due to safety concerns.’”

In its response to the OIG report, FMCSA said it had developed plans to correct the deficiencies noted by the OIG. By law, the Secretary of Transportation must report those plans for Congress. OOIDA indicated those plans had not been submitted  to Congress.

“FMCSA’s lack of a plan and process to conduct PASAs, and now its lack of a report to Congress on its efforts to create such a plan and process makes the information contained in the Sept. 12 PASA notice both incomprehensible and meaningless to the public,” OOIDA’s comments said.

A spokesperson for the FMCSA said the agency was studying the comments.

OOIDA also questioned how Grupo Behr’s one tractor trailer approved to operate in the pilot program could have passed the PASA. OOIDA said it ran the VIN number of the tractor and learned that the vehicle was a 1991 Class 8 Freightliner tractor.

“In industry parlances, this type 20-year-old vehicle that is past its useful life and no longer roadworthy is called a ‘junker’ and is sold and exported to countries that do not require the same standards for its vehicles,” OOIDA’s comments said.

The association also questioned how the vehicle could meet the emissions standards relevant to the pilot program. Any vehicle used in the pilot program must have an engine that conforms to EPA regulations applicable to 1998 or later.

OOIDA said the only way the tractor could comply with the 1998 was with a newer engine dropped into the frame, which the association would not have been financially practicable because the motor itself would have been worth multiples of the tractor value.

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