Trucking news and briefs for Monday, Aug. 7, 2023:
In a new report issued Aug. 2, the Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General said that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration was not always timely in conducting compliance reviews of Mexico-based cross-border carriers operating under provisional authority.
OIG found that the agency “generally followed federal regulations and its standard operating procedures and processes” in authorizing and monitoring Mexico-domiciled and Mexican-owned or -controlled motor carriers with authority to operate beyond the United States-Mexico border commercial zones. Investigation also found that FMCSA “has an adequate tracking system to determine when carriers are due for a review to ensure they are complying with these regulations.”
FMCSA, however, “did not always conduct timely compliance reviews” of those carriers, hindering the agency’s “ability to fully assess and mitigate carrier safety risks, resulting in increased risk that unsafe carriers may be operating on the Nation’s roadways.”
Federal regulations require FMCSA to conduct a compliance review on Mexico-domiciled carriers within 18 months of the agency issuing provisional operating authority. OIG reviewed 83 MX carriers that received authority as of Jan. 1, 2023, and found that 53 (64%) did not receive a compliance review within 18 months of receiving provisional operating authority. Additionally, 38 of those 53 carriers had not received a compliance review at all after having had provisional authority for an average of more than 40 months, with the longest for more than 85 months.
[Related: First cross-border Mexican fleet talks challenges, standards of operating in U.S.]
