Mexican Fleets Keep US Authority as Pilot Program Ends

This story appears in the Oct. 20 print edition of Transport Topics.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is allowing 13 Mexico-based trucking companies that were part of the agency’s cross-border pilot program to maintain U.S. operating authority.

Permission was granted Oct. 14 as the program came to an end. FMCSA said the carriers will be allowed to service the business they developed over the three-year pilot, which was created to evaluate the ability of Mexico-domiciled carriers to operate safely in the border commercial zones.

Should companies choose to continue operating, they will still be subject to border inspections and all U.S. trucking laws and regulations.

Separately, a member of FMCSA’s Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee said the group will hear an evaluation of the cross-border program from one of its subcommittees on Oct. 28. Janice Mulanix, who is chairwoman of MCSAC’s cross-border subcommittee as well as assistant chief of the California Highway Patrol, said MCSAC then will have the option of sending the evaluation on to FMCSA acting Administrator Scott Darling.

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General also will evaluate the program.

“Prior to making any additional determinations regarding cross-border trucking issues or specific carriers, the department will await expected reports on the pilot program,” said FMCSA spokeswoman Marissa Padilla. She also said the carriers would have provisional or standard operating authority.

The FMCSA website said the 13 carriers involved made a combined 27,915 border crossings during the course of the program, but two companies dominated.

Servicio de Transporte Internacional y Local SA de CV, made 20,102 of the crossings, or 72%, using 30 trucks and 17 drivers.

GCC Transporte SA de CV, made 5,528 border crossings, or 19.8%, using four trucks and five drivers.

The 11 other carriers combined for the remaining 8.2% of crossings, with the largest of the 11 making 576 trips.

Mulanix said her group has been wading through data generated by FMCSA for three years, but she will not release her findings until their formal presentation in Alexandria, Virginia, later this month.

A persistent complaint about the pilot program has been that not many Mexican carriers signed up. With such a low level of participation, critics have said, it will be difficult to come up with valid general conclusions.

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association has been a staunch opponent of the pilot program, and Todd Spencer, OOIDA’s executive vice president, is also member of MCSAC.

“Based on participation, the pilot program was basically two carriers from Mexico,” Spencer said. “To extrapolate the results to all of trucking in Mexico is a tremendous leap of faith on the part of the agency. When you look closely at what really went down in the program, it is obvious that FMCSA can’t possibly assure these trucks will operate in compliance with U.S. rules.”

An OOIDA spokeswoman said the association is not opposed to grandfathering in the 13 carriers from the pilot on a temporary basis but would like to see evaluation reports by the end of the year before going any further.

An American Trucking Associations official said the real issue for cross-border trucking is not the pilot program but improving border efficiency. Martin Rojas, who heads security and operations for the federation, said truck-borne trade with Mexico has been growing strongly and the pilot-program trucks are just a small portion of that.

The pilot program was “not an appealing opportunity” for Mexican carriers, Rojas said, because of its limited nature, just three years, and a very high rate of inspections.

“We want the border to work more efficiently,” he said. “We want something akin to the northern border with Canada.”

He also said ATA would like to see more automated transmission of information at the southern border.

The Mexico pilot program is part of FMCSA’s implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement cross-border longhaul trucking provisions.

While some U.S.-Canada truck crossings are open 24 hours a day, the Mexican border follows a pattern similar to standard business hours, with Mexican customs brokers, private business firms, going home for dinner.

Because border crossings can take hours, U.S. and Mexican trucking companies have found other ways to do business that do not involve longhaul driving from central Mexico to the middle of the United States. Shorthaul drayage runs across the border, either way, are typical, Rojas said.

After the crossing is complete, a longhaul trip, intra-United States or intra-Mexico, follows. Rojas said Mexican corporations have started trucking companies in the United States, and U.S. carriers have formed joint ventures or subsidiaries of their own, or developed partnerships with Mexican companies.