Senate Commerce Chair Questions Mgmt of Mexican Truck Program

On October 31, 2011, Senator Rockefeller, Chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee sent a letter to Secretary of Transportation LaHood seeking reassurance that DOT is doing all that it can to ensure applicants to the U.S.-Mexico cross-border trucking program are adhering to the highest standards of safety. In his letter, Rockefeller notes two recent events in DOT’s administration of the program involving Mexican-based trucking companies have raised concerns that there has been insufficient scrutiny of applicants to the program. The events of concern are the FMCSA’s almost authorization of a Mexican carrier with a poor safety record and its authorization of a Mexican carrier based on “an outdated safety record that is nearly three years old.”