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Delivery Trucks From Mexico to Begin Rolling Into the United States

The announcement of a one-year pilot program allowing Mexican trucks to make deliveries throughout the United States didn’t make Armando Freire very happy.

The president of the 22-year-old Dimex Freight Systems Inc. in Otay Mesa chalked it up to another example of unfair competition, which he knew was coming.

“This is something they’ve had on the burner for some time,” said Freire. “It’s like everything else. If you bring in low-cost labor competitors into this market, it will affect this business big time. No matter what the rules are, if you put a Wal-Mart next to a Robinsons-May, the Robinsons-May won’t fare as well.”

The program announced by U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Mary Peters on Feb. 23 in San Diego applies to 100 select Mexican trucking firms, all of which would have to comply with the same rules and safety standards that apply to U.S. trucking firms.

Mexican trucking companies approved for the pilot program will be able to travel throughout the United States, but could only make international deliveries or pickups. The trucks will be unable to transport cargo between U.S. cities, but can carry loads back to Mexico.

Currently, Mexican trucks are restricted to a 25-mile zone beyond U.S. ports. Locally, the boundary is Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, 40 miles north of downtown San Diego, because of a clause in regulations that allows the zone to be extended to a metropolitan area’s limits.


Extensive Audit

DOT officials said the Mexican firms selected will have to submit to an extensive audit of operations, including an inspection of business records and trucks.

The program also requires Mexican truckers to hold a valid commercial drivers license, carry proof they are medically fit, comply with U.S. hours of service regulations and their drivers must understand English. The trucks would have to carry insurance from the United States and meet all U.S. safety standards.

The program will begin soon after the first Mexican truck company receives authorization, which should occur in 30 to 60 days, said Ian Grossman, spokesman for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, a part of DOT.

The second phase of the cross-border trucking pilot program involves 100 U.S. carriers that would be authorized to make deliveries and pick up cargo inside Mexico. The second phase would start in three to six months, Grossman said.

The lag time for the U.S. trucks gaining entry to Mexico is due to “the Mexican government still working out final details of the process,” Grossman said, referring to the application and approval program.

Freire said last week that he was still trying to understand the details to figure out how they would affect his business, but so far, he’s been unable to get the answers. “I’ve heard about 10 different versions,” he said.

He also tried to get his firm approved to deliver cargo in Mexico, but officials at the Mexican counterpart of DOT, called Communications and Transportation, told him there were no such applications.


Decade-Long Debate

Access by Mexican trucks to this nation has been a prickly subject for more than a decade after the 1994 adoption of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which was supposed to lift barriers in all three countries. (Canada is the third NAFTA nation participating in the pact.)

But pressure from environmental and labor groups forced President Clinton to block Mexican trucks from entering the country. In 2004, the Supreme Court rejected a suit brought against the federal government’s efforts to open up the U.S. border to Mexico’s trucks.

James Hoffa, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, slammed the pilot program as threatening to the nation’s security, and threatening to U.S. drivers.

“As with the Dubai Ports debacle, President Bush is willing to risk our national security by giving unfettered access to America’s transportation infrastructure to foreign companies and their government sponsors,” Hoffa said in a press statement. “They are playing a game of Russian roulette on America’s highways. It is the American driving public who will pay the consequences.”

In remarks in a press statement announcing the pilot program, Michael Chertoff, secretary for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said ensuring the nation’s security and safety standards are upheld is a critical part of the program.

“The tough security measure we already have in place will remain unchanged, resulting in a smart and secure approach to safeguarding the border, while allowing for American and Mexican carriers to deliver cargo outside of arbitrary commercial zones,” Chertoff said.

Despite the pronouncements, Freire remains skeptical that Mexican trucks will comply with U.S. safety standards, especially regarding air quality emissions, which are stricter for California than federal standards and in other states.

“They won’t be able to do anything about the Mexican trucks,” he said. “Whether the Mexican trucks are as clean as ours or not, the fact is that they have different standards, and there’s not a whole lot that California can do to enforce it.”

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