Thread: Mexican trucks to be allowed to enter farther into Ariz., U.

Mexican trucks to be allowed to enter farther into Ariz., U.S.
Sean Holstege
The Arizona Republic
May. 10, 2007 12:00 AM

The day may be nearing when Mexican trucks will carry freight deep into Arizona and other states for the first time in a generation.

That prospect has rekindled controversy over the safety of Mexican trucks, the fairness of international trade agreements and the effectiveness of border security efforts. The latest round of debates comes as the U.S. government prepares to open up the southern border to 100 Mexican trucking firms as part of a one-year experiment.

Critics of the plan to allow trucks beyond a 25-mile commercial zone range from public safety advocates to independent truckers and unions. They say it will unleash a flood of poorly regulated trucks onto American highways, threatening jobs of U.S. truckers and the lives of everyday drivers.

Supporters come from much of the trucking industry, the Bush administration and many in Congress who favor the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA. They say that the Mexican trucks will be tightly regulated to meet U.S. standards and that letting them pass beyond the zone will save U.S. consumers hundreds of millions of dollars.

Mexican trucks crossed over the border 4.5 million times last year. In Arizona, the Nogales port of entry, the busiest, saw 288,000 of the state's 368,000 inbound crossings.

Since 1982, trucks have had to stop within the buffer zone and transfer their loads to U.S. truckers to take them into the country. The new regulations would allow Mexican drivers to take their loads from Mexico to any point within the country.


New rules in July


It looks as if the new rules will take effect in July, says the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the agency in the U.S. Department of Transportation that regulates trucking. Many close to the industry share the assessment, based on recent promises by the Mexican government. The 32 federal truck inspectors working inside Mexico have certified the safety procedures of 27 trucking firms. That comprises roughly 150 trucks.

"During this pilot program, it's going to be very light. It will be hard to find a long-haul truck for a while," agency Administrator John Hill said.

Mexico's Senate has balked at the program amid objections from Mexican trucking association CANACAR.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters has sued to block the plan. Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen, a non-profit consumer advocacy group, testified before the U.S. Senate two months ago that the U.S. truck safety agency is ill-equipped to regulate Mexican trucks.

She cited U.S. government audits and reviews that show the agency inspected fewer than 2 percent of U.S. firms, that safety records on Mexican trucks were alarming and that one in six Mexican truck drivers has no logbooks and one in four no valid driver's licenses.

"DOT asks that we nevertheless suspend belief and good judgment and accept on faith that the trucking companies from Mexico hand-picked to participate in the so called 'pilot program' will be radically different," Claybrook said.

The U.S. truck safety agency says about 20 percent of Mexican trucks inspected are not up to U.S. standards. That is the same rate as U.S. trucks.

Larry Woolson, chairman of the Arizona Trucking Association, says opponents of the plan have blown the concerns out of proportion.

"There's a hysteria that all these trucks in Mexico are (junk). That's as racist a thing as I've ever heard," he said. "I don't buy this dangerous-truck thing at all because you've got good operators and bad operators in Mexico, just like in the U.S. I don't believe bad carriers will go through all this trouble."

Hill said half of the 800 Mexican trucking firms vying to participate failed to pass a paperwork inspection. His agency has spent $500 million to bolster border inspections.



State highway and transportation agencies, along with U.S. customs officials, say the influx of Mexican trucks will not change their work. Trucks will be pre-screened for compliance with safety, immigration and customs laws, and reinspected for safety compliance every three months.

"We are ready," said Sydney DeModica, spokeswoman for the Arizona Department of Transportation's Motor Vehicle Division. "Of all the border states, we will probably have the least impact."

The U.S. Transportation Department expects that 13 percent of the eligible Mexican trucks will enter in Arizona. Brian Levin, a Customs and Border Protection spokesman, says agents will continue to check every truck.

Customs agents review in advance paperwork for the driver, the hauler and the load and inspect those that present a higher risk. Every vehicle passes through a radiation scanner, and at Nogales, those that warrant a closer look, about 28 percent, are sent to a secondary inspection station. Dogs, X-rays and gamma rays let inspectors check inside a truck without unloading it.




Customs screening


After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, ports of entry on the southern border saw lines of trucks backed up for miles.

The efficiency of customs screening and longer-haul trucking is important to Arizona. Mexico is the state's largest foreign trade partner, accounting for $5.4 billion of exports last year, said Pati Urias, an Arizona Commerce Department spokeswoman.

If U.S. authorities say they are ready, truckers such as Woolson are skeptical the Mexican government is. The border was to be opened under NAFTA, which was ratified in 1992. At various times since, government officials announced new regulations, only to be delayed.

"I'm not holding my breath," he said, noting the Mexican government has been slow to get paperwork to U.S. carriers. "Already you see this going backwards."

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FMCSA extends comment deadline for cross-border program
By Steven Mackay

June 29, 2007
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is extending the comment period for its Federal Register notice concerning the Mexican cross-border trucking demonstration program until the close of business July 9.

The comment period was to have expired June 28. The FMCSA cited glitches in the docket computer service as the reason for the extension. Comments can be made by clicking here. The required docket number is FMCSA-2007-28055.

“In the spirit of transparency, we have extended the comment period to give the public more time to review supplemental information added to the docket and because of technical problems due to relocation of the docket computer servers, which interfered with viewing access,â€