I try not to be political here, but you need to know the work the Truck Safety Coalition is doing right now.

The Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Bush administration are pushing hard to start a “pilot” program to allow Mexican trucks to drive anywhere in the U.S.  Currently Mexican trucks are restricted to certain border areas.  This has been a hot issue for several months and has been studied by several agencies, including the DOT Inspector General ‘s own report that identified serious safety deficiencies that still exist in the program.

Specifically key pilot program requirements that address federal laws regarding safety in the US have been ignored with this pilot.  At least five states (NE, NV, MT, RI, UT) and perhaps more are not ready to enforce safety rules for the pilot program.  Half of our states do not have procedures in place to oversee and enforce requirements in several areas of safety and security.  There are unresolved data deficiencies on Mexican truck driver convictions and violations.  Safety inspectors do not have important safety information on vehicle accident reports, or driver violations maintained by Mexican authorities, nor any information about whether the pilot motor carriers, vehicles or drivers have insurance.  There is no method to ensure that Mexican drivers comply with U.S. drug and alcohol testing laws.  In reality, we have no way of controlling what the Mexican drivers are doing when they are in Mexico just prior to driving over the boarder onto our roads.   

Though in late July the House passed an amendment to their DOT appropriations bill that will not allow DOT to spend any money on this pilot until these issues are remedied, the Senate had not done the same, and DOT still planned to roll the pilot out. 

However, members of the Truck Safety Coalition were called to action, and we all called, faxed and emailed our Senators and today the Senate approved an amendment to their own DOT appropriations bill that also prohibits spending on the pilot until these issues are cleared up.  This is the direct result of our work, and I for one am proud that somewhere out there at least one life has been saved by our efforts to keep Mexican trucks from rolling freely over our roads without having to follow our own safety standards.

Stay tuned, I’m sure this issue has not gone completely away.  Check out more about the truck crisis at:   http://www.trucksafety.org