 |
Southwest Region UTC
Examines Mexican Border Truck Safety
 |
| Robert Harrison |
| Entrance to the El Paso Border Safety Inspection Facility. |
The Southwest Region University Transportation Center (Region VI),
headquartered at the Texas Transportation Institute in the Texas A&M
University System, recently reported the results of a detailed safety study of
trucks crossing the U.S.-Mexico border into the State of Texas. The results of
this study shed new light on the public debate over the desirability of
allowing Mexican trucks into the
United States
,
and concerns that motor carriers from
Mexico
would not comply with
U.S.
motor carrier safety laws.
The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) was made responsible
for insuring truck compliance at the state border and in 2002 began operating
border safety inspection facilities (BSIFs) at the eight
largest truck border crossings.
At the Texas BSIF facilities, DPS personnel look for observable
safety violations with the driver, tractor, and trailer, and either permit the
truck to leave the facility or send the truck to the secondary inspection bay.
The secondary inspection determines if the truck should be placed out of
service. Data on all trucks that undergo the secondary inspection are compiled
by DPS. In 2006, there were over 3.2 million northbound truck crossings into Texas,
most passing through the BSIFs, where commissioned
and civilian employees inspected over 111,000 trucks.
The Southwest Region UTC analyzed BSIF data from northbound
vehicles domiciled in both countries and was also able to compare data from
similar trucking operations on either side of the border. Their analysis
indicates that Mexican truck safety was superior in many cases to that of
U.S.
carriers. In fact, the Mexican vehicle out-of-service rate was better at six of
the eight facilities studied, based on their analysis of a substantial BSIF
database that now exceeds 400,000 truck inspection records.
The principal investigator for this project, Robert Harrison
(harrison@mail.utexas.edu), was assisted by Jason West
(jrwest@mail.utexas.edu). Both are at The University of Texas at Austin,
Center for Transportation Research (CTR).
For more information on this research and the DOT UTC program, please visit www.utc.dot.gov. Each of these
studies has been discussed in more detail in recent issues of the UTC Spotlight, a new monthly publication you
can find at: http://utc.dot.gov/. The views presented in these UTC research summaries are those of the authors
and not necessarily the views of the Research and Innovative Technology Administration or the U.S. Department of
Transportation. |
|
|
