By Eric Miller, Staff Reporter This story appears in the March 28 print edition of Transport Topics.
Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) is the latest member of Congress to send a letter to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood expressing his strong opposition to a U.S. proposal to buy electronic onboard recorders for Mexican trucks that will travel within the United States.
Pryor said he is a proponent of EOBRs because they help federal regulators monitor drivers’ hour-of-service compliance, but that equipping government-owned EOBRs on Mexican trucks is unfair to U.S. truckers, who will be required to pay for the devices under a proposed rule.
“I also do not believe U.S. taxpayers should subsidize such purchases for Mexican trucking companies, particularly under our current fiscal condition,” Pryor wrote in a March 17 letter to LaHood.
The mandate for the EOBRs, which also must be equipped with Global Positioning System capabilities, is part of the cross-border trucking agreement announced earlier this month by President Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calderon. Details of the Mexican truck EOBR mandate were made public earlier this month by Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration officials.
Anne Ferro, FMCSA administrator, said on March 15 that the agency has included a budget request of from $500,000 to $700,000 to pay for the EOBRs during fiscal year 2012.
The agreement to let Mexican trucks cross into the U.S. interior, a requirement of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, was completed in part to end retaliatory tariffs on U.S. products imposed by the Mexican government after Congress shut down a pilot cross-border program in 2009.
The EOBR mandate is aimed at quelling concerns over Mexican drivers’ HOS issues raised by Congress, the Teamsters union and some industry groups. However, the EOBR mandate plan has ignited another controversy, drawing a sharply negative reaction from U.S. motor carriers that could be required to buy and install EOBRs on all their trucks as soon as 2014.
Pryor, a member of a Senate transportation appropriations subcommittee, asked LaHood to reconsider the EOBR purchase proposal.
Pryor also said he is concerned that federal agents who inspect the Mexican trucks coming over the border could be corrupted.
“I suggest you consider an approach similar to a recent anti-corruption law which I sponsored that would require Customs and Border Protection applicants to receive a polygraph examination and background investigation before being offered employment, and would require relevant employees to receive periodic background investigations on a regular basis thereafter,” Pryor wrote.
Earlier this month, Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), the ranking member of a House transportation subcommittee, expressed opposition to the EOBR Mexican trucks plan in a letter to LaHood.
“It is outrageous that we would spend tax dollars to pay for equipment on Mexican trucks, equipment which either the
Mexican government or Mexican carriers themselves should be required to pay,” DeFazio said in a March 10 statement.
“I also question the authority to grant Mexican carriers permanent authority to operate on American roads and highways before a pilot program is complete and the results evaluated,” he added.
