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10/13/07 Foreign Truckers on U.S. Roads
The contentious issue of foreign truckers operating on U.S. roads recently raised its head again. This time, the subject was resurrected because of remarks made by former Acting Secretary of Transportation Maria Cino in a July 24 interview in Traffic World magazine. In the interview Cino indicated that the Department of Transportation expected to release a plan by the end of the year that would allow about 100 Mexican trucking companies full access to U.S. roadways.
In September a spokesman for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), Ian Grossman, indicated that the plan Cino had spoken about earlier was still under discussion. “We are continuing our conversations with Mexican officials to allow cross-border trucking operations….it’s clear from our discussions that the end of the year is the earliest that both sides will be prepared to begin a pilot program.”
Under the North American Free Trade Act (NAFTA) the borders were supposed to be opened on a limited basis to both U.S. truckers driving to Mexico and Mexican truckers driving to the U.S. in 1995. Full border crossing privileges for both sides were scheduled to go in effect in 2000.
The plan was shelved however when the Clinton administration, under pressure from the Teamsters union, declared that Mexican trucks posed safety and environmental risks, and limited their operation to a 20 mile commercial zone around the border. In response the Mexican government imposed similar restrictions on U.S. truckers.
Since 2001 a series of NAFTA arbitration panel decisions, court cases, and Congressional actions kept the 20 mile limit in effect on both sides of the border. However in 2004 the Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision that rejected an environmental challenge from labor and public interest groups and opened the way for Mexican trucks to travel U.S. roads.
Current regulations prohibit Mexican trucks from making point to point deliveries of freight within the U.S. The FMCSA is considering a plan that would allow selected Mexican trucking companies to have complete access to U.S. highways. It would be a trial program that would last from 12 to 18 months during which the Mexican motor carriers would be highly monitored for compliance with U.S. safety regulations.
The trucking industry has been and remains sharply divided over the prospect of opening U.S. highways to Mexican trucks. That division falls along the same lines as the division in the industry that occurred during the original debate over the NAFTA treaty itself.
The American Trucking Associations (ATA), the largest national trade association representing the trucking industry, supported NAFTA and supports implementing the cross-border trucking provisions of the NAFTA treaty. “Implementing NAFTA’s trucking provisions will allow motor carriers to better meet the transportation demands of our growing trade flows, doing so in an efficient, effective, and safe manner” said an ATA representative in testimony before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.
On the other side of the issue are the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA), the Teamsters union, and environmental public interest groups. According to OOIDA executive vice president Todd Spencer, “A move by the U.S. Department of Transportation to open U.S. roadways to Mexican trucks puts the interest of foreign trade and cheap labor ahead of everything else, including highway safety, homeland security and the well being of hardworking Americans.” Labor unions are concerned that they will lose jobs to lower-paid Mexican drivers and environmentalists worry about the impact on the environment from older more-polluting Mexican trucks.
Opponents of opening the border to unrestricted commercial traffic cite safety issues as their main concern. Mexican drivers they say, routinely operate well in excess of the hours of service limitations imposed on U.S. drivers. In addition, medical and licensing standards for Mexican drivers are well below those required for U.S. drivers, say opponents. They also note that Mexican trucks are not subject to the same rigorous safety and inspection standards in Mexico as domestic trucks are in the United States.
Those favoring opening the borders say that the Mexican government has imposed a safety regimen for both trucks and drivers that is similar and comparable to that in the U.S. They also note that Mexican trucks operating on U.S. roads would be subject to the same vehicle and driver safety inspections as are U.S. trucks. In addition they say that the Mexican trucks already operating in the 20 mile U.S. commercial zone are statistically as safe as their American counterparts.
The issue of allowing Mexican trucks free reign on U.S. roads is likely to remain a hot button item as the decision whether or not to implement a pilot program draws closer, with safety and labor advocates on one side and free-trade proponents on the other.
***************************BREAKING NEWS***************************
As this article was going to print the new head of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, John Hill, announced in an online interview that the plan for opening the U.S.- Mexican border to Mexican trucks had been put on hold. Said Hill; “There are no immediate plans to open the border.” If Mexican trucks are allowed on U.S. roads they will be “subject to the same safety standards as U.S. and Canadian trucks.” | 
