WASHINGTON — Mexican truckers will dominate cross-border trucking in years to come because they are willing to do the same work for less money than their U.S. counterparts, according to transportation experts who spoke at a Transportation Research Board seminar last week.

WASHINGTON — The Department of Transportation will rely on the FBI’s fingerprint database to identify possible security risks among people seeking licenses to haul hazardous materials.

The U.S. Department of Transportation has sent the White House rules governing the entry of Mexican trucks to the U.S., Transport Topics learned Friday.

WASHINGTON — The federal and state governments aren’t ready to cope with safety challenges posed by fully opening the U.S. border to Mexican trucks, according to a study prepared for Congress.

WASHINGTON — Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administrator Joseph M. Clapp will collect the names of people who die in crashes with trucks and buses during January as a way to remind staff members that their purpose is to prevent fatalities.

WASHINGTON — The United States should be fully ready to open its border to Mexican trucks by the middle of this year, according to U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta.

A new Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration policy, effective immediately, should make it easier for trucking companies to expunge nonpreventable accidents from their safety records and perhaps improve their safety ratings, according to regulators.

The new head of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Joseph M. Clapp, will seek the cooperation of trucking companies in the effort to reduce truck-related fatalities 50% by 2008.

More money will go to enforcing trucking safety in fiscal 2002 than ever before, with congressional appropriators allocating $335 million to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration in the transportation bill on its way last week to President Bush’s desk.

Four senators took the first step toward cleaning up the language of the wide-sweeping USA Patriot Act, designed by Congress and the White House to protect the nation from future terrorist attacks.