The U.S. Department of Transportation revealed it's partnered with U.S. Customs and Border Protection to impose "immediate and real" consequences on foreign motor carriers who commit cabotage.
Also, new, stricter guidance from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration now allows out-of-service violations for English language proficiency along the border.
Cabotage, when a Mexican or Canadian trucking company breaks federal rules by not just delivering or picking up cross-border loads within the U.S., but continuing to haul freight with both U.S. origin and destination, has long plagued American trucking.
It's not exactly easy to police.
For more than a year, Overdrive has asked the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration what it's doing to stop cross-border drivers from hauling U.S. freight.
After this May report from Agencia RN Noticias quoted Pedro Lozano Martínez, a delegate from the Nuevo Laredo chapter of Mexico's National Chamber of Freight Transportation, claiming some 3,200 Mexican drivers had their B-1 visas revoked, DOT said it was cracking down.
"For years foreign carriers exploited enforcement gaps created by the previous administration to illegally haul freight within our borders, undercut American truckers and violate our laws," a DOT spokesperson told Overdrive.
Martínez told the news org that he's seeing DOT and CBP partner up to not only inspect trucks, but do immigration enforcement at the border.
“Previously, the DOT conducted inspections" roadside or at weigh stations, he said, and that even if an officer found a driver engaged in cabotage, "nothing happened back then because it was a DOT inspection, and the DOT doesn't have the authority to revoke a visa."
Across the U.S., state law enforcement increasingly teams up with the Department of Homeland Security, which includes CBP, to conduct immigration enforcement roadside. Already, more than one thousand CMV drivers have been arrested and many processed for deportation in separate actions in places like Oklahoma, Arizona and Indiana.
It seems such immigration enforcement has spread to the border.
Lately, Martínez said, "DOT and CBP systems have merged, and all drivers who received a warning for possible cabotage from the DOT are having their visas automatically revoked by CBP without any investigation."
The revocations, he said, happen electronically, and the "driver doesn't even realize it unless they check their email, and when they arrive to cross the border, the system automatically tells them they have to relinquish their visa.”
Asked for comment on Martínez' description of CBP collaboration, the DOT spokesperson didn't confirm the exact 3,200 number, but did confirm the partnership and that cabotage reports now impact visa status.
"The era of looking the other way is over," they said. "Under Secretary Duffy, USDOT is leveraging data sharing with U.S. Customs and Border Protection to ensure that if a driver is caught breaking our cabotage laws, there are immediate and real consequences. If you violate the terms of entry into this country, you forfeit the privilege to operate on our roads."
CBP has been revoking driver visas over cabotage since November.
A release from CBP in Nogales described two incidents where Mexican drivers were "determined to be in violation of multiple federal regulations, including cabotage laws," CPB wrote.
"The drivers were returned to Mexico and were informed that their border crossing cards would be processed for revocation due to violations of their visa terms," CBP continued. "Drivers retrieved their personal belongings from the vehicles, which were subsequently towed. The truck owners were notified of the enforcement actions."
DOT's new statement confirms a deeper level of partnership, and a grander scale of cabotage enforcement.
FMCSA tightens English language regs in the border zone
FMCSA, too, recently updated its border zone guidance to inspectors about English language proficiency enforcement.
It could have big implications for the scourge of cabotage.
In April, FMCSA made a small tweak to the language on its English language proficiency roadside examination guidance to inspectors, rescinding former clarification Overdrive reported on in February.
Drivers operating in the border zone have enjoyed an exemption from inspectors enforcing ELP as an out-of-service violation. The majority of ELP violations happen in these border zones, and before the April change only resulted in a non-OOS violation, no matter where the driver's headed or where they've been.
Change to the guidance directs inspectors to find out more: "If the driver’s current trip involved, or would involve, transportation in the U.S. outside of the U.S.-Mexico border commercial zones, they should cite the driver for violating 49 CFR § 391.11(b)(2) and place the driver OOS if the driver fails the ELP assessment."
Essentially, find out where the driver is going, and if they're headed deeper into the country, place them OOS for ELP, should the situation warrant it.
Not only does it open the door for more OOS enforcement of the ELP regulation, FTR Transportation Intelligence VP of Trucking Avery Vise said it could have a big impact on cabotage enforcement.
"By adding the condition that the driver is not traveling to or from another point in the U.S. outside the commercial zones, roadside inspectors now are, in effect, directed to address the cabotage issue that has generated so much attention," Vise told Overdrive. "Given that roughly 70% of all English language proficiency violations occur in the border zones, that could become a big deal."
Allowing OOS violations in the border zone makes sense as part of broader strategy to push out foreign drivers.
Taken in concert with FMCSA's February rulemaking banning non-domiciled CDLs, it looks like DOT broadly has put the pedal to the metal on ELP and immigration enforcement for drivers.
FMCSA's recent ELP guidance is "not a silver bullet cabotage solution by any means, but it does represent a modest and potentially significant tightening of the enforcement, in my opinion," Vise concluded.
[Related: ELP enforcement in the border zones: FMCSA prior guidance]
