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LaHood working vigorously to come up with new Mexico truck plan

WASHINGTON — Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood continues to vigorously propose a solution to meeting the U.S.’s obligations to Mexico under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) prior to President Barack Obama’s meeting with Mexican President Felipe Calderón in Mexico in mid-April.

LaHood has been meeting with Congressional leaders and trucking industry stakeholders since the cross border demonstration project between the two countries was killed last month by a vote of Congress as part of the omnibus spending bill.

Wednesday, LaHood met with trucking industry stakeholders.

Among those attending were Bill Graves, president and CEO of the American Trucking Associations, Jim Johnston, president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, Teamsters President James Hoffa and representatives of several safety advocate organizations.

The meeting was an example of LaHood’s willingness to meet with stakeholders in an effort to get ideas for a new program, Candice Tolliver, director of communications at the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, said today.

“He has already met with 18 members of Congress and by the end of today will have met with a total of 23,” Tolliver said. “All of these meetings (with Congress and industry stakeholders) are part of the process of due diligence that will result in the DOT submitting to the White House a set of principles for new legislation that is consistent with our NAFTA obligations.”

One of those with whom LaHood will meet sometime today will be Rep. Peter DeFazio, a longtime critic of the just ended program, DeFazio's office confirmed.

The country's NAFTA obligations include providing Mexican trucks access to U.S. roads and highways, Tolliver said.

When asked whether the principles LaHood would set forth would mean another pilot project similar to the just ended program, Tolliver reiterated her statement that the proposal would be consistent with the nation’s obligations to Mexico under NAFTA.

Clayton Boyce, vice president of public affairs and press secretary for the American Trucking Associations, said Graves was pleased to be consulted about the situation.

“He told LaHood that the previous project was working, but perhaps it needed to be tweaked to respond to those who said it needed improvement,” Boyce said today.

He noted that Graves told LaHood that indeed improvements could be made to the Mexican national data base of drivers and carriers concerning safety records and truck inspections.

Graves also mentioned enhancing the tracking of Mexican trucks on U.S. roads.

“He [Graves] said in the meeting that while Mexican trucks coming into the U.S. have Qualcomm equipment, that equipment is not doing all the tasks that Qualcomm services are capable of doing,” Boyce said.

A spokesman for the Teamsters union said Hoffa has a policy of not commenting after meetings such as the one that took place Wednesday.

However, when the bill that eventually ended the pilot project was introduced, Leslie Miller, a Teamsters union spokeswoman told the Associated Press “This is a really big win for us. Historically, there has been very, very strong support” for ending the Mexican truck program.

Hoffa told Bloomberg.com late last month the concerns that needed to be addressed in a new program included having complete records on Mexican driver safety violations and on-duty time, and having better drug and alcohol testing.

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D.-N.D., wrote the wording into the recent omnibus spending bill that resulted in the demonstration project being killed.

Dorgan has pledged to work with the DOT to come up with a new program to meet NAFTA obligations.

A spokesman for Dorgan’s office confirmed that Dorgan was one of the congressional leaders with whom LaHood has met recently.

Lyndon Finney of The Trucker staff can be reached to comment on this article at [email protected] .