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Cross-border update: Mexican carrier denied program entrance, FMCSA committee to evaluate program

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Updated Jul 10, 2014

Mexico UsAn agency subcommittee will meet at the end of the month to determine whether the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration met its objectives with the three-year cross-border pilot program with Mexico, which started in 2011 and ends Sept. 30 of this year.

Meanwhile, the agency this week announced a Mexican carrier applicant to the program, Trans-Mex Inc., SA de CV, failed the agency’s Pre-Authorization Safety Audit, effectively denying Trans-Mex for participation in the program. 

The carrier had applied for five trucks and 10 drivers to participate in FMCSA’s cross-border program, which allows Mexican carriers to operate beyond the commercial border zone. 

It began the PASA in October 2013 and according to FMCSA’s notice of the PASA results, hours-of-service problems caused the carrier to fail the safety audit. Trans-Mex is the third carrier to fail the PASA since the program’s 2011 beginning. 

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FMCSA’s Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee’s subcommittee on the U.S.-Mexico Cross Border Long Haul Trucking Pilot Program will meet Monday, July 28, in Arlington, Va.. The subcommittee, at the onset of the pilot program, was formed and tasked with assessing the safety records of Mexican participant carriers, advising the agency on tasks related to the program and issuing a final report concluding “whether FMCSA conducted the pilot program in a manner consistent with the objectives outlined” in 2011, according to a Federal Register notice slated to be published this week.

FMCSA says the subcommittee will present its recommendations to the full committee before the final report is submitted to FMCSA.

Public comments will be heard during the last 15 minutes of the meeting, but commenters can submit written comments by Monday, July 21, for consideration during the meeting.

Click here to make a written comment prior to the meeting. Comments will start being accepted the day FMCSA publishes the notice in the Federal Register, slated right now for July 8.