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03/05/2007 DOT to Allow Mexican Trucks in the U.S.
In a move aimed at ending a decade-long stalemate, the U.S. Department of Transportation on Feb. 22nd announced a one-year pilot project to open the U.S. – Mexican border to 100 Mexican trucking companies who will have unrestricted access to U.S. highways nationwide.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters announced the plan at Transportes Olympic, a Mexican trucking company in the border city of Monterrey, Mexico. “To keep U.S. – Mexican trade flowing, we must allow trucks to go beyond border zones,” said Peters. When asked by Reuters if this was the first step towards a total lifting of the ban on Mexican trucks outside the current 25-mile commercial border zone, Peters said, “Yes, that is what we are working toward.”
The plan calls for U.S. safety inspectors to inspect the trucks and drivers of the 100 participating Mexican trucking companies in Mexico before they are allowed to cross the border. The inspections will be the same as those conducted in the U.S. including mechanical and safety vehicle checks, driver compliance checks, and insurance verification.
“The inspection teams will also check that the drivers have a valid commercial driver’s license, have a current medical certificate, and can comply with U.S. hours-of-service rules...Trucks lacking required documentation will be subject to a “hood to tail-lamps,” inspection by the teams,” said a DOT press statement issued by Peters’ office.
The pilot project came after an agreement was reached with the Mexican government that allows U.S. inspectors to conduct inspections in Mexico. That agreement may mark the end of a contentious trade dispute between the U.S. and Mexico. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) had called for complete mutual access for the trucks of each country to begin by 2000, but that access was held up because of safety disputes between the two countries. Congress passed additional safety certification requirements in 2001. Trucker unions, environmentalists, and others also waged a decade-long battle against opening U.S. roads to Mexican trucks based on safety, pollution, and illegal immigration concerns.
The move by the DOT has angered safety groups, union and independent drivers, environmentalists, and many smaller trucking companies. Safety is a primary concern of those opposing the plan. Todd Spencer of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) notes that “to reach a conclusion that the safety regime in Mexico is compatible in any way, shape, or form with what we have here in the U.S. is ignoring reality. Mexico has never had hours-of-service regulations or drug testing of drivers…”
Joan Claybrook, president of the public interest safety group Public Citizen, is particularly concerned about the lack of hours-of-service regulations for drivers in Mexico. There is “…no way of telling how many hours these truck drivers have been driving before they get to the U.S…” said Claybrook.
Both union and non-union drivers fear that lower payed Mexican drivers (33% - 40% less than U.S. drivers) could eventually replace many American drivers. They contend that companies with divisions in Mexico will use Mexican trucks to deliver products to the U.S., lowering their labor costs, but driving smaller U.S. trucking companies out of business and further reducing demand for American drivers. The Teamsters union has raised the question of whether and how U.S. wage and labor laws will be enforced against Mexican companies sending trucks into the U.S.
The environment is another area of concern for many who oppose the DOT plan. Environmental officials in California are concerned that since Mexico doesn’t use low-sulfur diesel, trucks coming into California from Mexico will impact the particulate health standards mandated by the State for 2015. California also has a law on the books requiring Mexican trucks to meet U.S. pollution standards if they travel in California. Potentially NAFTA could nullify that California law, and others like it, so that Mexican trucking fleets will not have to meet the same environmental standards that U.S. fleets must meet. That could have both a negative environmental impact and put U.S. fleets at a competitive disadvantage.
The DOT pilot program is supported by the American Trucking Associations (ATA), the largest group representing motor carriers and the U.S. trucking industry. “Regulation of Mexican carriers operating in the United States will ensure a level playing field in cross-border operations,” said Clayton Boyce a spokesman for the group.
Business groups on both sides of the border also support the plan. They have long complained that the requirement to transfer goods to U.S. trucks for transport in the U.S. adds millions of dollars in costs and also adds to the congestion and delays at border crossings. “Implementing the cross-border trucking provisions of NAFTA…is long overdue. This pilot project is a welcome step toward reducing congestion and air pollution at the U.S. – Mexico border while promoting economic growth and jobs” said John Murphy, vice president of international affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
The DOT notes that under the agreement, Mexican trucks will be limited to carrying international freight between the two countries. They will be prohibited from picking up cargo in the U.S. and delivering it to another point in the U.S. This prohibition should limit the impact that Mexican carriers will have on the domestic U.S. trucking industry. No trucks hauling hazardous materials or busses carrying passengers will be involved in the pilot project.
In her remarks Secretary Peters addressed safety concerns by noting that, “Every single day, hundreds of Mexican trucks operate safely on roads in major cities like San Diego, Brownsville and El Paso…They have already racked up an impressive safety record that is on par with their American counterparts.”
U.S. Senator Patty Murray, Democrat from Washington State and chairperson of the Senate appropriations subcommittee on transportation has announced that she will hold hearings on whether the new DOT plan meets the safety certification requirements previously set by Congress. | 
