Despite the persuasive arguments given by OOIDA, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and Public Citizen, the U.S. District Court of the D.C. Circuit rejected a pair of petitions filed by the groups which called for a review of the US-Mexico cross-border trucking program.
OOIDA and the Teamsters had originally filed two separate petitions, but the cases were joined and were heard starting in December of 2012. OOIDA’s original petition asked the court to “enjoin, set aside, suspend (in whole or in part) or determine the validity of the implementation of (DOT’s cross-border program).” It goes on saying: “Implementation of the pilot program is arbitrary, capricious and abuse of discretion and otherwise not in accordance with law.”
Both organizations object to the cross-border programs because the safety and compliance standards for commercial motor vehicles and their drivers in Mexico are not as strict as the standards in the United States. The judge ruled however that the Mexican medical standards “would provide a level of safety at least equivalent to the American standards taken as a whole.”
Paul Cullen Jr., an attorney with The Cullen Law Firm, OOIDA’s litigation counsel, further explained the ruling: “The court has apparently read laws passed by Congress intended to establish greater safeguards to ensure Mexican truckers comply with U.S. laws and safety standards and construed to them to give FMCSA authority to accept less than full compliance with U.S. safety laws by Mexican truckers.”
“This whole program is a slap in the face to U.S. drivers that go to great lengths to comply with an ever-tightening regulatory noose,” Todd Spencer, executive vice president of OOIDA, said in an e-mailed statement to Bloomberg. “If safety were truly a priority, standards would be held high on both sides of the border.”
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Source: bloomberg, overdriveonline, fleetowner, landline
Did we expect anything else?
As a driver not 3PL, I am out rage. Here I am going through the DOT/MC process and it is rough, everything is safety…maybe i should just move to Mexcio
Hope they don’t open the floodgates and cause a trucking job shortage for U.S. citizens. Or ‘cheapen’ the compensation rates…… Naaah! That could never happen.
What is the real reason for this situation, I think it has a lot to do with corporate America and their well moneyed influence on the system. Cheap illegal labor and Cheap trucking all coming out of Mexico. Unions, even adhoc unions are a bad word in Corporate Language. Workers are a necessary evil but they should not get too high and mighty and think they can gain a larger share of the profit pie. The quickest way to fix that is to keep a ready supply of immigrant workers (and truckers) at hand to make sure unions and organized labor has no leverage to work with. Logic and reason will never win when stacked up against the right amount of cash.
Our government keeps getting worse and worse. It seems like time to start voting some of these old farts out to send a message and at least give us a few years of decent living and some half way decent laws before the new ones are corrupted.