Cracking Down on Trucks at Border

The two tiny cracks will cost Mexican trucker Juan Manuel Serrano three hours and a $160 repair.

The hairline fissures on a wheel rim of Serrano’s big rig appeared during a safety check at the CHP inspection station on the U.S. side of the Otay Mesa border crossing Wednesday. The flaws, barely visible, were extensive enough that CHP inspector Carsel Butcher ordered the scrap-hauling truck off the road until the rim was replaced. Butcher also found problems with two tires--one worn thin, one gashed--and brake shoes that rubbed constantly.

Serrano nodded and set out to phone a tire shop.

Such scrutiny of Mexican trucks is rare along the U.S. side of the 2,000-mile border--except in California, according to a new federal study. The audit, by the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Transportation, found that California is the only one of the four Southwest border states adequately checking Mexican trucks that cross into the United States 3.5 million times a year.

“We concluded that far too few trucks are being inspected at the U.S.-Mexico border, and that too few inspected trucks comply with U.S. standards,” said the report, which analyzed data from fiscal 1997.

At one crossing in El Paso, Texas, the report said, a sole inspector capable of checking 10 to 14 trucks a day faced a flow of 1,300. Other crossing points at times had no inspectors.

Restricted to Border Zone

Safety is central to a years-long trucking dispute between the United States and Mexico. Citing safety and other issues, the U.S. government in 1995 delayed implementation of a section of the North American Free Trade Agreement that would allow Mexican trucks to venture beyond the narrow border zone into the U.S. interior. Mexican commercial trucks generally are restricted to a commercial zone that reaches three to 20 miles inside the U.S. border.

The audit said California, whose four truck entrances handled 793,403 crossings, boasted the most rigorous inspections among the border states. Though it received just a fifth of the cross-border traffic, California assigned more safety inspectors to the border--52 full or part time--than Texas and Arizona combined. Those two states account for the lion’s share of truck traffic.

California has two permanent inspection facilities on the border, in Otay Mesa (a section of San Diego) and Calexico, built in 1996 for $15 million each.

As a result of the heightened inspection presence, the study said, Mexican trucks on California highways are in better shape than those in the other border states. Only 28% of Mexican trucks were yanked off the road for failing safety inspections in California during fiscal 1997. That compares with 50% in Texas, 42% in Arizona and 37% in New Mexico. The overall failure rate for Mexican trucks was 44%.

The failure rate for U.S trucks was 25%; for Canadian trucks, 17%.

At the California Highway Patrol inspection facility at Otay Mesa, a slow parade of Mexican rigs pulls through state-of-the-art scales. Those lacking a current 90-day inspection sticker are directed to one of four modern bays, where inspectors run through a top-to-bottom check of 17 mechanical features. The standards for Mexican trucks are the same as for U.S. trucks examined at weigh stations throughout the state.

Last year inspectors examined 17,379 trucks at the Otay Mesa facility. Truck crossings there totaled 578,253, most of them repeat journeys by the same trucks.

Although many of the Mexican trucks have been on the road for two decades, officials said they are not the rolling deathtraps some have made them out to be.

“They’re not bringing some of those trucks you read about. They’re not trying them here,” said CHP Sgt. Steve Vail. “The [trucking companies] know we’re going to see enough of their rigs.”

The audit found a “direct correlation” between inspections and truck conditions. “California has the best inspection practices, and the condition of the Mexican commercial trucks entering at the Mexico-California border [is] much better than those entering all other border states,” the report said.

Stronger Controls Proposed

The audit said Mexico lacks an inspection program to match those in the United States and Canada, whose trucks have enjoyed full access to U.S. highways since 1982. The United States and Canada restrict the hours of driving without rest and require logbooks and other documents that Mexico does not.

“Until Mexico implements its safety system, the United States must strengthen its controls,” the audit said.

The report suggested ways to beef up truck inspections along the 28 truck crossings into the United States, at costs ranging from $3 million to $7 million. Under the proposals, California would get four to 16 federal inspectors to augment the CHP contingent.

Some suggest that the NAFTA provision allowing truckers complete access inside the United States, Mexico and Canada could bring higher-quality trucks capable of long hauls. That provision is set to take effect next Jan. 1.

Serrano, who drives a 1984 Freightliner from Tijuana to San Diego and on to Mexicali each day, said many Mexican trucks are “a mess,” bouncing over spine-jamming Mexican roads with balding tires and spotty brakes.

The 28-year-old trucker said he was glad to have found out about the cracked rim, delay and all. “It’s my horse,” he said, touching the banged-up trailer. “If I don’t keep it fed, down it goes.”