Groups Criticize FMCSA Over Mexican Trucks in Cross-Border Program
Four groups opposing the federal government’s program that allows some Mexican trucking companies to travel throughout the United States sharply criticized the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, saying the agency is allowing unsafe companies into the cross-border pilot program.
FMCSA recently approved an audit for RAM Trucking to enter the program, despite the company’s initial reluctance to disclose two affiliates that have poor safety scores in the agency’s Compliance, Safety, Accountability program, the groups said.
The four groups — the Teamsters union, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety and the Truck Safety Coalition — also accused FMCSA of allowing two companies to continue participating after agency audits resulted in poor safety ratings.
“We’ve said all along that our concern about this program was ensuring that Mexican trucks and drivers meet our U.S. safety standards, and it’s clear that FMCSA has not been exercising the proper oversight to accomplish this goal,” Teamsters General President James Hoffa said in the statement. “It’s wrong and inexcusable to endanger the traveling public in this way.”
The Teamsters and OOIDA tried to get the cross-border trucking program shut down in federal court, but that action was rejected by a federal appeals court in April.
In a statement released this week, none of the groups said they would take any additional action against the program. A spokeswoman for the groups said she did not know if they were planning to take action.
The day after the statement, FMCSA spokesman Duane DeBruyne said the agency was reviewing it, but he defended the agency’s handling of the program.
He compared the vetting of carrier applicants to the investigations FMCSA conducts of the highest-risk truck and bus companies. Those investigations have shut down numerous carriers.
“The same rigor and thoroughness in which FMCSA continues to investigate ‘high risk’ bus and truck companies currently operating in the U.S. will likewise continue to be applied to applicants to the cross-border pilot program,” DeBruyne said. “We will not permit unsafe carriers or drivers to operate on U.S. highways and roads.”
