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 Business News | March 2008 
Truckers' Language Rules Unclear
 Paul M. Krawzak - San Diego Union-Tribune
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| | Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said U.S. inspectors determine the English proficiency of Mexican drivers. (Getty) | | |
Washington – Mexican truck drivers allowed to travel throughout the United States under the auspices of a pilot program are first required by law to demonstrate proficiency with the English language.
But U.S. Department of Transportation regulations allow those drivers to use a language other than English when responding to questions to prove they recognize U.S. highway signs, according to testimony yesterday at a Senate hearing.
The apparent disparity between the legal requirement and the specific regulation drew a skeptical reaction from Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D.
“It raises the question of English proficiency, which is part of the safety issue,” he said.
Dorgan, an opponent of the program, has accused the Bush administration of not requiring Mexican truck drivers to meet the same safety standards as their U.S. counterparts – a claim that federal transportation officials dispute.
Dorgan chaired the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee hearing, which was called to examine the six-month-old pilot program created to test the safety of Mexican trucks on U.S. roads.
He pressed Transportation Secretary Mary Peters for an explanation.
Peters acknowledged that during border inspections, Mexican drivers are allowed to use any language that a U.S. inspector understands when answering questions to prove they recognize U.S. signs.
But she added that inspectors determine English proficiency through other questions, such as asking a driver's name, what the truck is carrying and its destination.
“The inspector has a conversation with the driver,” Peters said.
Calvin L. Scovel III, the Transportation Department's inspector general, told the panel that the road-sign quiz is “but one component of the English-language proficiency test.”
“This was one factor among others that the inspector could consider in determining whether a Mexican driver has English-language proficiency,” said Scovel, who on Monday issued an interim assessment that found the program still has serious shortcomings.
William Quade, associate administrator at the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, said Mexican truck drivers are not asked to identify signs until they have demonstrated English proficiency.
“Our thinking was they've already established that they can communicate in English, and at some point in time we need to get on with the inspections,” Quade said after the hearing. “So we allow the inspection to continue in whatever language is appropriate that both the inspector and the driver understand.”
Opponents of the program have sought to shut it down through legislation and litigation.
U.S. transportation officials say a comprehensive inspection process assures that Mexican trucks allowed in the one-year pilot program are as safe as American trucks.
The Bush administration views the program as the first step toward a wider opening of the border, which it believes would benefit the economies of both countries.
Paul M. Krawzak reports for Copley News Service: paul.krawzak(at)copleydc.com
Report: Not Enough Trucks in Program
Paul M. Krawzak - Copley News Service
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Washington – A pilot program to test the safety of Mexican trucks on U.S. highways has failed to attract enough participants to produce statistically valid results, according to an inspector general's report issued yesterday.
U.S. transportation officials had envisioned that up to 100 Mexican carriers would be involved in the six-month-old experiment by now, the interim assessment from the Department of Transportation's inspector general's office said. But as of Feb. 25, only 16 Mexican carriers had participated.
“The current number of participants is not adequate to make statistically reliable projections or estimates of some important characteristics, including safety characteristics such as the number of crashes that could be expected from long-haul Mexican carriers,” the report said.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which runs the program, also has yet to fulfill a pledge to create a system to ensure that every Mexican truck that crosses the border is inspected, it added.
One surprise in the report was that the vast majority of Mexican trucks have not traveled beyond a 25-mile wide commercial zone on the U.S. side of the border, when the point of the program was to enable them to do so. Mexican trucks have been allowed to drive into the border zone for years.
Mexican participants have crossed into the United States 3,680 times since the pilot program began, but only 247 of those trips, or 6.7 percent, went beyond the commercial zone, the report said.
The report also noted that California was the state where most of the trips beyond the border zone occurred. It said 89 percent of the 247 trips beyond the zone occurred in California.
The assessment comes at a critical time for the program, which was designed to last one year.
Opponents have criticized U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters for continuing the pilot in defiance of a law passed by Congress in December that bars using federal funds to continue the project.
The Bush administration contends the narrowly worded law prohibits the creation of new pilot programs but does not restrict the existing pilot.
Both sides are awaiting a ruling from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, which heard arguments in a legal challenge to the pilot program last month.
Yesterday, Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., called on Congress' investigative arm to determine whether the Transportation Department is violating the Antideficiency Act, which prohibits spending federal money that has not been authorized or appropriated.
Peters is set to go before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee this afternoon, where she will be questioned about the program during an oversight hearing. The committee also has called in Inspector General Calvin L. Scovell III and opponents of the project to testify.
Opponents portrayed the report as damaging.
Teamsters spokeswoman Leslie Miller called concerns about low participation “very damning because Congress has expressly required that pilot programs include a reasonable number of participants as necessary to yield statistically valid findings.”
But Melissa Mazzella DeLaney, a Transportation Department spokeswoman, countered that the inspector general “acknowledged that (the agency) has addressed every issue in his previous reports” on the program.
She added that the agency has “taken a layered approach to quality control,” including the use of satellite technology to track participating carriers.
The administration launched the pilot program Sept. 6 with hopes it would prove the safety of Mexican trucks and lead to a wider opening of the U.S.-Mexican border to long haul trucks from both countries, as required under the North American Free Trade Agreement.
The inspector general credited the transportation agency for documenting that all Mexican carriers in the program purchased the required insurance.
It also said the agency made good on a promise to prepare state officials to enforce program requirements.
The agency also has corrected problems in a database that tracks Mexican drivers' traffic convictions in the United States, it said.
Earlier in the day, a dozen business leaders met with Peters to warn that ending the pilot program would lead to trade retaliation from Mexico that could cost up to 40,000 U.S. jobs.
Teamsters President James Hoffa scoffed at the warning, saying Mexico had more to lose from a trade war than the United States.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. |
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