Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
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JOURNAL NEWS LAWSUIT SEEKS TO BLOCK CROSS-BORDER PILOT PROGRAM A block the U.S. Department of Transportation from opening the U.S.- Mexico border to Mexican trucks through its cross-border pilot program. The Public Citizen and the Sierra Club challenged the program in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. "It's outrageous enough that we've out- sourced millions of jobs to foreign countries, but now we're bringing foreign workers across the border into the United States to take our jobs," said Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa. "This is another pressure the American middle class doesn't need. … Congress has repeat- edly and overwhelmingly set tough safety conditions for any cross-border trucking program, and this one clearly doesn't meet those conditions." The suit claims the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's pilot program: proof that they meet federal safety standards; level of safety because Mexican drivers don't have to meet the same physical - vide simultaneous and comparable access to U.S. trucks. Mexico cannot do so because of the limited avail- ability of ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel in Mexico; must include enough participants to be statistically valid. FMCSA's proposal ensures that only the best Mexican trucks participate, which would allow it to justify letting any Mexican truck over the border in the future; and; - Environmental Policy Act. Three Mexican carriers have been approved for program participation, with the third, Moises Alvarez Perez, recently clearing its Pre-Authority Screening Audit. The first Mexican carrier approved for program participation, Transportes Olympic, made its first delivery under the program Oct. 20. Leading opponents of the pilot program – including the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, the Teamsters union and 14 COMMERCIAL CARRIER JOURNAL | JANUARY 2012 Write 233 on Reader Service Card or visit ccjdigital.com/info