March 12, 2008 PrintSaveE-mailSize: +/–New cross-border participant’s safety stats lackluster Despite assurances by Department of Transportation officials that Mexican companies in the cross-border program are squeaky clean, one of the newest participant’s safety records tells a different tale.

Avomex International received its authority to operate beyond the border zone Feb. 29. That is in spite of a past riddled with safety violations.

The motor carrier’s safety records were highlighted by the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association in the Association’s lawsuit seeking to stop the cross-border program.

In one of the court filings, OOIDA’s Director of Regulatory Affairs Rick Craig pointed out that in the 12-month period ending Sept. 21, 2007, Avomex’s five trucks at that time had amassed 206 total violations in 172 inspections. That averages out to just slightly more than 41 violations per truck.

That research was completed after Avomex was announced as having passed the Pre-Authorization Safety Audit.

However in the four months following Sept. 21, 2007, Avomex’s safety record hasn’t improved, yet the company was still granted authority to operate beyond the border zone in the U.S.

From Sept. 22, 2007 through Jan. 22, 2008, Avomex received 71 more violations in 41 inspections – well on pace to top the 206 violations in the preceding 12-month period.

In both the testimony submitted to the court and in the subsequent research, Avomex was put out of service only a limited number of times – despite violations that clearly should have resulted in out-of-service orders, according to Craig.

In the 16-month period, the company’s trucks have been put out of service a total of only 21 times. Yet numerous additional violations of regs regarding things such as “non-English speaking driver,â€