Group of U.S. Truckers Contesting Cross-Border Trucking Program in Supreme Court

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a recent Washington D.C. Circuit Court ruling allowing Department of Transportation's cross-border trucking pilot program to continue. The program, which went into effect in 2011 as part of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), treats a Mexican

commercial trucking license as the equivalent to a commercial trucking license issued in a U.S. state, thus allowing Mexican trucking companies to run their operations into the U.S. The program requires all Mexican operators to follow the same rules as operators in the U.S. According to Bloomberg, safety advocates say that regulators have allowed at least one Mexican trucking company to continue operating in spite of a lowered safety rating. GCC Transporte de CV, the Mexican company that has crossed the border most often, was stopped for safety violations 18 times in one year, and were still allowed to operate. Currently, there are 13 Mexican companies operating in the cross-border program. 

OOIDA maintains that the program is contrary to a statute, which says that truck drivers must carry a valid U.S. commercial trucking license. When the border opened with NAFTA, both OOIDA and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters filed separate challenges to the program. A Washington D.C. Circuit Court found against both challenges. In response, OOIDA filed a petition for writ of certiorari on October 24, contesting the ruling. Now OOIDA has taken their cause all the way to the Supreme Court, urging it to take up their challenge of the pilot program (The Teamsters were not part of the recent OOIDA filing). Trucking Info reports that OOIDA is asking for a response to their filing by the end of November.