Mexico trucks to roll on U.S. highways

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration can proceed with a plan to open the U.S. border to long haul Mexican trucks as early as next week after an appeals court rejected a bid by labor, consumer and environmental interests to block the initiative.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco late on Friday denied an emergency petition sought by the Teamsters union, the Sierra Club and consumer group Public Citizen to halt the start of a one-year pilot program that was approved by Congress after years of legal and political wrangling.

The Transportation Department welcomed the decision and said in a statement that allowing more direct shipments from Mexico will benefit U.S. consumers.

The 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement approved broader access for ground shipments from both countries but the Clinton administration never complied with the trucking provision. A special tribunal ordered the Bush administration to do so in 2001.

"This is the wrong decision for working men and women," Jim Hoffa, president of the Teamsters, said in a statement after the court ruling. "We believe this program clearly breaks the law." The Teamsters represents truckers that would be affected by the change.

The emergency stay was sought on grounds the administration's pilot program had not satisfied the U.S. Congress' requirements on safety and other issues. But the appeals court ruled otherwise.

The administration plans to start the program on September 6. Transportation Department officials hope to receive final clearance early next week from the department's inspector general's office, which is reviewing its safety aspects, and finalize details with Mexican authorities.

The Mexican government must grant reciprocal access to U.S. trucks under NAFTA. That provision is not expected to be a problem, regulators said.

Mexican trucks operating in the United States have for years been restricted to U.S. points near certain large border crossings where their goods are transferred to trucks owned by U.S. firms.

Under the pilot program, Mexican long haul trucking companies that have met safety, licensing, and other U.S. requirements will be allowed to operate their rigs throughout the country. Proponents say this will reduce costs and speed up shipments.

Trucking regulators said in a court filing the goal is to gradually accommodate 100 Mexican trucking companies by the end of the pilot program, or roughly 540 large trucks.

But opponents said those figures do not reflect the number of companies that could seek access to U.S. roads if the pilot is successful, which they said raises safety concerns.

"This (pilot) program is basically a show trial. They haven't provided notice up front about who will participate. You just don't know what the program will look like," said Bonnie Robin-Vergeer, attorney for Public Citizen.

Public Citizen and the Teamsters still plan to proceed with a lawsuit they filed in federal court, challenging the Mexican truck program on broader grounds. That case will not likely be decided until next year.

Go look at the website for the American Trucking Association. This is one of the most important regulatory issues affecting the trucking industry in years, and yet the ATA apparently doesn't have anything to say about it. Their silence is absolutely deafening. On the other hand, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) has made numerous public statements opposing this change in cross-border trucking regulations -- even to the point of recognizing it as the biggest issue it now faces.

Keep in mind that the opening of the U.S. border to Mexican truckers is not a blanket, open-ended relaxation of cross-border trucking rules. The proposed USDOT initiative restricts this "open access" to only a select number of large Mexican fleets -- which basically protects the large U.S. trucking fleets from competition from small Mexican outfits while at the same time giving these large U.S. companies the opportunity to cut deals with the large Mexican fleets. You're probably going to see major U.S. firms like Schneider and J.B. Hunt signing agreements with these Mexican carriers that are similar to the deals U.S. airlines sign with foreign airlines to improve the efficiency of international travel. If you buy an airline ticket from United Airlines to fly between the U.S. and Canada, you pay United for the ticket and carry a United ticket to the gate, but you may end up flying an Air Canada aircraft on one leg of the trip.

The figures you are quoting are out of context for the entire of the American Trucking Industry. If one were to include local O/O’s that operate short haul perhaps you could achieve the figure of 80%-90% you are stating in your response.

My figures are probably reasonably accurate. Keep in mind that many of the trucks that operate in the large U.S. fleets are actually driven by owner-operators who sign contracts with these companies. When you pass an orange Schneider truck on the highway somewhere, you aren't necessarily passing a truck that is being driven by a Schneider employee.

Don’t forget it won’t be long and the Ports in our Nation will be empty of ships due that now Mexican trucks are allowed to invade our Sovereignty, the International Shipping Community will shift to Mexico to take advantage of the cheaper Port rates, cheaper Longshore, and trucking that is uninhibited by U.S. Environmental and Safety requirements.

You might be right, but I predict that it will be at least 200 years before this happens. The biggest problem this country faces in terms of its ports is that we import so much crap from all over Asia that all of our West Coast ports are operating at or near their capacity right now. There aren't enough ports on the Pacific coast of North and South America (combined) to handle the projected volume of U.S. imports over the next 20 years.

“You’re probably going to see major U.S. firms like Schneider and J.B. Hunt signing agreements with these Mexican carriers...”

Been going on in the industry for years already. It’s called “Logistics”.

“My figures are probably reasonably accurate. Keep in mind that many of the trucks that operate in the large U.S. fleets are actually driven by owner-operators who sign contracts with these companies.”

I had all that in mind when I responded that your figures are out of context. I’ve been involved in the Transportation Industry since 1968 and am semi retired at this time. I was involved at the beginning of International Ocean Cargo Container Shipping in my former years, and Truck Transportation and Containers in my latter years. I would hope I learned something about the Industry during those years.

“You might be right, but I predict that it will be at least 200 years before this happens.”

Alberta...(Shaking head) I disagree with your time line prediction as I was involved in many a meeting with the Principals of the International Container Ship Operators going back as early as 1970. The only reason the International Shipping Community hasn’t moved to Mexico is because of transportation out of Mexico. Now with the opening of our borders to Mexican trucks, this action by the International Shipping Community will happen very soon. Perhaps not en masse, but substantially enough to hurt our economy in various American Port cities.

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