This new rule may make trucking into Mexico easier

Truckers gain freeway access in Mexico, U.S.
Yearlong program could begin in April
By Diane Lindquist
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
February 24, 2007

After more than a decade of fierce opposition, U.S. and Mexican officials came to the Otay Mesa border crossing yesterday to announce a pilot program that will open highways on both sides of the border to truckers from either country.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters said the yearlong pilot program, which could start as early as April, will initially enroll 100 Mexican and 100 U.S. long-haul freight companies. She gave further details of plans first disclosed Thursday.

“The time has come to move forward on a longstanding promise with Mexico,” Peters said.

Under the North American Free Trade Agreement, U.S., Canadian and Mexican truckers were supposed to gain unfettered access to highways across the continent.

But in 1995, days before the date the NAFTA trucking provision was to kick in, President Clinton – under pressure from the Teamsters union – prevented implementation. He cited concerns that Mexican trucks and drivers might endanger the safety of U.S. citizens.

Congress subsequently appropriated funds to establish safety inspection facilities along the border and to quadruple the number of U.S. inspectors and auditors to ensure that Mexican trucks and drivers met U.S. safety standards.

Safety and environmental challenges continued, however, until the Supreme Court ruled in 2004 that the Bush administration could go ahead and open the U.S. border to trucking.

Currently, Mexican truckers can operate only within a limited zone at the border. In San Diego County, many drivers transfer their loads to U.S. operators for delivery to the U.S. interior. Some Mexican fleet owners have operations in both countries.

At yesterday's news conference at the California Highway Patrol inspection station, Peters said measures are being taken to ensure Mexican trucks will meet U.S. safety and environmental standards, including requirements that truckers have driver's licenses, be medically fit, comply with U.S. requirements that drivers work limited hours, can respond to questions in English, have U.S. insurance policies, and comply with U.S. truck safety standards.

Opening the border will benefit business on both sides, she said.

“Here at the border trade is an essential part of economic life,” Peters said. “Now U.S. truckers will be able to compete in the Mexican marketplace for the first time ever.”

Mexican Communications and Transportation Secretary Luis Tellez said the decision to start the pilot program is historic. “We are neighbors and trade partners, and we have to work together,” he said.

U.S. opponents of the plan have not given up. The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association announced that it plans to take its concerns about numerous safety issues to the U.S. Congress.

“While some of the safety shortcomings of trucks from Mexico have seen improvement . . . many others have not,” Todd Spencer, the group's executive vice president, said in a statement. “We feel (the Department of Transportation) is overstepping its bounds with the pilot program, and they may very well be overstepping congressional mandates.”

Under the program, U.S. inspectors from the Department of Transportation will visit trucking operations in Mexico to examine their trucks, books and safety records.

While Mexican truckers from across the U.S.-Mexico border region will be enrolled in the pilot program, 500 of the 800 Mexican companies that previously applied for access are from Baja California.

Alfonso Isaias Esquer Millán, a Baja California-based fleet operator who made one of his trucks available for a safety demonstration, said he hopes to get into the pilot program.

“We have to update our files,” he said, “but our trucks are as compliant with U.S. safety regulations as those in the United States.”

Mexico has not yet finalized the application process for U.S. truckers to gain access to roads south of the border. It might take as long as six months to get the system up and running.

“There's not been an overwhelming interest in American companies to go south,” said John H. Hill, administrator of the Transportation Department's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.