|
Officials stage cross-border inspections
By Todd Dills
"Inspect the Bush administration," said protest signs held by Teamsters, who fear job competition from Mexican truckers.
|
U.S. DOT officials, along with their Mexican counter- parts, staged inspec- tions of two 2007 Freight- liner tractors outside DOT headquarters in Washington, D.C., Oct. 17 as the Teamsters protested nearby.
“We want to demonstrate to Congress," said U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, "that tough safety standards and rigorous inspections work, and that trucks participating in this program will have the same features, the same upkeep, and the same commitment to safety that any U.S. truck has."
Congress is considering two versions of the transportation appropriations bill for fiscal 2008. Both contain language that would cut funding for the administration’s cross-border trucking demonstration program. Fewer than 20 trucks are involved in the program so far, though as many as 100 carriers from each country, and multiple trucks from each carrier, could be approved.
A crowd of 30 or more Teamsters-affiliated protesters waved signs near the event, saying it proved nothing about the safety of Mexican trucks.
One of the inspected vehicles was Truck 52, a Columbia in the Transportes Olympic fleet based in Neuvo Leon, Mexico, that was the first truck under the pilot program to cross the border Sept. 8. Truck 52 also was inspected publicly at the Feb. 22 press event in Mexico, held at the Transportes Olympic yard, that formally announced the cross-border program.
The other inspected truck Oct. 17 was a Century Class owned by U.S. Xpress Enterprises.
As part of the cross-border program, strict Level 1 inspections are performed at every crossing on “every truck, every time,” said FMCSA Administrator John Hill. On Oct. 17, however, the two tractors received a less stringent Level 2 inspection by Trooper 1st Class Jason Lambert and Capt. Bill Doffelmeyer of the Maryland State Police, accompanied by Peters, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez and Mexican Transportation Secretary Luis Tellez.
“I think it’s insulting what they’ve done here today,” said Tommy Ratliff, former Consolidated Freightways driver and president of Teamsters Local 639 in Washington, D.C. “Our drivers are held to standards. This proves nothing. What happens when the cameras go off?”
Todd Spencer of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, in a press release, agreed: “Akin to a magician’s pretty assistant distracting an audience from what he is up to, this is just another attempt by DOT to divert attention away from the program’s deficiencies.”
Tellez said driver drug testing programs and licensing standards for Mexican drivers in the program are equivalent those in the United States. “The mythmakers want you to believe that Mexican trucks and drivers are less safe than U.S. trucks and drivers,” he said, then paraphrased Mark Twain: “That’s a real stretcher.”
Both Tellez and Peters acknowledged that the demonstration program was meant to show that, on the safety front, both governments are proceeding in a “fact-based” manner, gathering data and applying appropriate controls.
Peters kept her message focused, however, on Congress, urging members to change just “a few words” for the final version of the appropriations bill to keep the program up and running.
Guttierez said ballooning trade activity at the border demonstrates the need for the program. Trade at the U.S.-Mexican border has more than tripled since the North American Free Trade Agreement’s beginnings in 1993.
|
|
