Georgia Truck Accident Attorney Blog

Georgia passes law to streamline interstate discovery

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 11:10:59 -0500

In my commercial trucking accidents law practice, we often need to subpoena business and medical records from other states, especially in interstate trucking personal injury and wrongful death litigation. In cases filed in state courts of Georgia, rather than federal courts, it has been necessary to comply with an arcane variety of differing state laws in order to do so.

Until recently in Michigan, for example, it was necessary to retain a lawyer in that state and spend roughly a thousand dollars just to get a routine subpoena for documents issued and served.

Last week, the Georgia legislature passed the Uniform Interstate Discovery and Depositions Act has finally passed in Georgia. This new uniform law, when enacted in all states, will make interstate discovery for cases in state courts almost as easy as it is in federal courts. It will enable Georgia lawyers to get subpoenas for depositions, document production and inspection of premises in other states that have enacted the same uniform law, and will make it easier for lawyers in those states to do the same in Georgia.

HB 46, sponsored by Representatives Jacobs, Lindsey, Willard, Oliver, Lane and Weldon (all friends of mine), almost passed last year but got caught in the legislative traffic jam in the Senate at the end of the 2011 session. It was one of the first substantive bills to pass this year and go to Governor Deal for signature.

This is reciprocal, and only available to lawyers when both states have passed the same law. At a meeting of the Southern Conference of Bar Presidents next week in New Orleans, I plan to make a pitch to my counterparts from other Southern states that have not yet enacted this law to put it on their State Bar legislative agendas. As shown on this map, the Southern states that have not yet passed it Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas.Those that have passed this law include Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi.

Here is what the new law provides:

FMCSA bar use of hand held cell phones by commercial truck drivers

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 07:51:01 -0500

For years we have explored cell phone distraction as a factor in the cause of motor vehicle accidents, including commercial trucking accidents. Discovery of cell phone records has become routine in litigation. We have read all the studies, deposed the experts and argued about the legal ramifications. I won't rehash all that here.

Now the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has issued a rule barring use of hand held cell phones by commercial truck drivers in interstate commerce. The agency stated the rationale for the rule in part as follows:

Using a hand-held mobile telephone may reduce a driver’s situational awareness, decision making, or performance; and it may result in a crash, near-crash, unintended lane departure by the driver, or other unsafe driving action. Indeed, research indicates that reaching for and dialing hand-held mobile telephones are sources of driver distraction that pose a specific safety risk.

The agency summarizes much of the research on cell phone distraction in explaining its conclusion that "it is the action of taking one’s eyes off the forward roadway to reach for and dial a hand-held mobile telephone ... that has the greatest risk."

Truck driving hours trimmed just a little

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 07:26:50 -0500

Truck driver fatigue is a chronic issue in the causation of commercial truck accidents. Now the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has tweaked the rule yet again, but only at the outer margins of the hours of service rules.

Effective February 27, 2012, the FMCSA revises the hours of service (HOS) regulations so as to cut maximum work week from 82 to 70 hours on average. To combat the effects of chronic fatigue, the provision allows drivers to work intensely for one week, but will require them to compensate by taking more time off in the following week. This is being done

. . . to limit the use of the 34-hour restart provision to once every 168 hours and to require that anyone using the 34-hour restart provision have as part of the restart two periods that include 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. It also includes a provision that allows truckers to drive if they have had a break of at least 30 minutes, at a time of their choosing, sometime within the previous 8 hours. This rule does not include a change to the daily driving limit because the Agency is unable to definitively demonstrate that a 10-hour limit—which it favored in the notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM)—would have higher net benefits than an 11-hour limit. The current 11-hour limit is therefore unchanged at this time. The 60- and 70-hour limits are also unchanged. The purpose of the rule is to limit the ability of drivers to work the maximum number of hours currently allowed, or close to the maximum, on a continuing basis to reduce the possibility of driver fatigue. Long daily and weekly hours are associated with an increased risk of crashes and with the chronic health conditions associated with lack of sleep. These changes will affect only the small minority of drivers who regularly work the longer hours.

The FMCSA explains that:

The goal of this rulemaking is to reduce excessively long work hours that increase both the risk of fatigue-related crashes and long-term health problems for drivers. A rule cannot ensure that drivers will be rested, but it can ensure that they have enough time off to obtain adequate rest on a daily and weekly basis. The objective of the rule, therefore, is to reduce both acute and chronic fatigue by limiting the maximum number of hours per day and week that the drivers can work.

8.7% increase in trucking fatalities

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 12:00:43 -0500

Fatalities in large truck accidents increased 8.7% in 2010, according to a report released last week by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration.

NHTSA said in its annual report that 3,675 people died in trucking related accidents in 2010, an increase of 295 over the 3,380 fatalities in 2009. The number injured in trucking accidents increased 12% from 17,000 to 19,000. (Those number are surely rounded off.)

NHTSA did not clearly identify a cause, but increased truck traffic due to gradual economic recovery is likely a major factor.

Hit & run tractor trailer causes fatal wreck on I-285

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 14:17:42 -0500

Atlantans woke this morning to the news that at 5:30 AM a hit and run tractor trailer caused a chain reaction accident on I-285 southbound in DeKalb County near Ponce de Leon Avenue. It hit a Ford Focus, knocking it into a Toyota Camry. Those drivers got out of their cars, apparently to inspect damage, and were hit by a fourth vehicle. Both were killed.

The tractor trailer left the scene and and last report had not been identified but law enforcement officers had launched a search. I am confident that the Georgia State Patrol SCRT(Specialized Collision Reconstruction Team) team will give this very high priority and do a superb job. The tractor trailer could well be in South Carolina or Florida by now.

The impact on morning rush hour traffic throughout the east side of metro Atlanta was monumental.

Truck driver class actions spreading

Sun, 13 Nov 2011 13:47:39 -0500

While my trucking litigation practice focuses largely on representation of individuals and families in personal injury and wrongful death cases arising from trucking accidents, a lot of those are truckers hurt in wrecks with other trucks. I'm working on several of those now.

Truck driving is hard, dangerous and underpaid work under difficult conditions. Too often the traditional "knight of the highway" becomes the "serf of the highway" when large trucking companies and shippers subject them to the "death of a thousand cuts" by shaving their pay, benefits and -- for independent owner operators -- their fuel allowances.

I haven't yet heard it mentioned on the Road Dog Trucker channel (106) on SiriusSM satellite radio (of course, I switch between that and country music), but a new trend around the country is the truck driver class action, in which representatives of thousands of truckers working for large companies band together. Some examples:

- When Tulsa-based Arrow Trucking shut down without warning at Christmas 2009, its drivers were left stranded without pay, benefits or even a way to get home from wherever they were. A class action for 260 former Arrow drivers in bankruptcy court against the top officers of the company is producing a $2 million settlement according to an article this week in Land Line.

- YRC Worldwide Inc. has agreed to pay $6.5 million to settle four class action lawsuits arising from the company's practice of contributing company shares to match employees’ contributions to the 401(k) plan. When the company's stock tanked, affected employees lost most of their retirements savings. YRC said the settlement, if accepted by the court, would be covered by its insurance company, according to an article in the Kansas City Star.

- Schneider Logistics is being sued in a class action alleging wage and hour and working condition violations at a Wal-Mart distribution center it operates in California, according to this news report.

This reminds me of the successful class actions against Wal-Mart for denying workers rest and meal breaks, refusing to pay overtime, and manipulating time cards to lower employees’ pay. One of the tricks was to shave every employee's hourly pay by an amount that likely would not be noticed by workers but added up to millions of dollars for the company. Those resulted in a $172 million jury verdict in California, a $78 million jury verdict in Pennsylvania, $6.5 million bench trial judgment in Minnesota, settlement of $640 million in 63 federal and state class-action wage-and-hour lawsuits, plus another $40 million settlement in Massachusetts.

"Little birdies" have been telling me that the same sort of abuses occur regularly in some large LTL trucking companies that pay drivers by the hour rather than by the mile. We are putting the team together to handle cases in this category for Georgia truckers if they arise. I can't say which companies are guilty of this, but some of the largest LTL trucking lines in the US include:

- Con-way Freight
- FedEx Freight
- YRC (Yellow-Roadway Corporation)
- ABF Freight System
- Old Dominion Freight Line
- UPS Freight
- Watkins Motor Lines
- Southeastern Freight
- Roadrunner
- USF

Illinois law upgrades GPS information on safe truck routes

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 23:56:56 -0500

New ideas for trucking safety don't pop up very often. Thanks to fellow trucking safety trial lawyer Michael Leizerman in Ohio for bringing this one to my attention.

Earlier this month, Illinois enacted a law to improve the GPS data available to truck drivers. The goal is to provide better routing details specific to trucking in the state, thus helping to reduce accidents and traffic.

Effective January 1, 2012, Illinois state and local governments will be required to inform the Illinois Department of Transportation about details of preferred trucking routes, weight restrictions on roads, and height limitations for bridges and overpasses. The Illinois DOT will then post this information on its website.

The new state law also requires streamlining the way cities and towns report designated truck networks and preferred routes, and merger of databases that contain important data such as overpass heights. The new law will also help educate truckers about the benefits of using GPS devices created specially for them.

This is an idea I hope our Georgia legislators will consider.

Log and pulpwood truck accidents in Georgia

Tue, 02 Aug 2011 19:10:05 -0500

Throughout rural Georgia, clearly unsafe log and pulpwood trucks operate on the highways with little apparent concern for safety of the public with whom they share the roads. Just as trucking accident cases are different from car wreck cases, log truck cases are different from other trucking accident cases.

- Insurance coverage. Most log trucks in Georgia operate intrastate, solely within Georgia, just hauling logs from Georgia forests to Georgia paper mills. Under Georgia law, they are only required to have $100,000 in liability insurance coverage. Other log trucks haul across state lines to paper mills in adjacent states, and must have at least $750,000 liability insurance. In practice, pulpwood vendors and paper companies often require by contract that loggers hauling pulpwood for them carry $1,000,000 liability insurance.

- Different rules. Loggers operating solely within Georgia, or who are engaged in a trip that is entirely inside the state, are governed by the Georgia Forest Products Trucking Rules. Log trucks hauling loads across state lines are governed by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations. While similar in a number of ways, there are crucial differences, particularly with regard to conspicuity (visibility) of extended loads at night.

- Venue. Owners and drivers of log trucks often reside in rural counties where jury pools are likely to include their friends and relatives and forest products are vitally important to the local economy. Suit must be filed in the county of residence of a defendant who has liability. The potential for "home cooking" is obvious. Within the past year I have reviewed several log truck cases in which the owner and driver were residents of counties with populations under 5,000. While I don't want to over generalize, it is not uncommon for jurors on log truck cases in such counties to say, in effect, "we know this logger broke the rules, but so does every other log truck we see every day, and we're not going to hold this one accountable for doing what we see everyone else doing." To avoid that, the plaintiff may have to move outside Georgia in order to establish diversity of citizenship required for federal court jurisdiction.

- Law enforcement issues. In counties where the forest products industry is prominent, law enforcement officers are likely to have friends and relatives in the business, and thus may be sympathetic to the loggers. Moreover, most deputy sheriffs and city police are not trained on the requirements of the Georgia Forest Products Trucking Rules, so they don't know what to look for in an accident investigation. Ignorant of the rules, they don't know enough to enforce the rules or even to call in state investigators who do know the rules. The result is incomplete investigations, failure to document the facts, blaming the victim, and jumping to the conclusion that the logger bears no responsibility.

- Experts. Many of the prominent expert witnesses who testify capably about interstate motor carrier wreck cases lack the background to be credible expert witnesses in logging and pulpwood trucking cases.

If you or a loved one have been seriously hurt with a brain, spinal cord or back injury, or a family member has been killed, by one of these log trucks, you need an attorney experienced in log truck accident cases, who knows the pitfalls in log truck accident litigation and how to work around them.

NTSB recommends truck stability control rule

Tue, 02 Aug 2011 18:41:18 -0500

Stability of semitrailer tanker trucks with high and shifting centers of gravity is a significant issue in tanker truck accident cases.

Now the National Transportation Safety Board has recommended for commercial vehicles over 10,000 gross vehicle weight:

- that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration require retrofitting of stability-control systems on tanker rigs; and

- that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration develop stability control system performance standards for all commercial motor vehicles and buses, and require installation of stability control systems on all newly manufactured commercial vehicles.

These recommendations arise from the NTSB investigation of a fiery crash nine months ago in Indianapolis, in which a propane tanker trunk rolled over due to oversteering on an exit ramp. The tank ruptured, allowing gas to escape and exploded. Drivers of the truck and a passenger vehicle were seriously injured.

In my trucking accident litigation experience, I have found that tanker truck drivers often operate under extreme stress due to the knowledge that their rigs could easily explode in an accident, causing death or serious injury. In litigating one case, I learned that one tanker truck line that delivers gasoline to service stations in Georgia carries "peasant life insurance" payable to the company in the event that one of its drivers is killed in an explosion. That happens about once a year.

I have also found tanker truck drivers who are inadequately trained about the handling characteristics of tanks with a high and shifting center of gravity. This is particularly common in the concrete industry, where companies may hire drivers who just have a commercial driver's license (CDL) with no training about the speed at which a tanker or concrete mixer truck will roll over in a turn.

Truck-only lanes cut from metro Atlanta transportation plans

Tue, 02 Aug 2011 18:16:18 -0500

Plans for truck-only lanes on metro Atlanta expressways are among the aspirations cut from the Atlanta Regional Commission's transportation long-range plans released this week.

The ailing economy and strapped government budgets led the ARC to ax or defer beyond my likely lifetime:

- optional toll lanes alongside I-75 and I-575 in Cobb and Cherokee counties

- a component that would carry only tractor trailer trucks

- widening South Cobb Drive from Cobb Parkway to Atlanta Road, and from Atlanta Road to Bolton Road

- widening University Ave. from Metropolitan Parkway to the Downtown Connector

- new interchange at I-675 and and Cedar Grove Road

- mass transit line across northern I-285 from Cumberland to Perimeter Center

On I-85 in Anderson County, SC, Georgia truck driver apparently falls asleep, kills self and 2 others

Tue, 02 Aug 2011 17:38:05 -0500

Truck driver fatigue is one of the more common causes of tractor trailer collisions. Too often the trucking industry pushes drivers to complete deliveries on impossible schedules, falsifying their logs if necessary to look legal if they are stopped. Over the years as a trial lawyer specializing in interstate trucking accident cases, I have heard truck drivers' stories of economic pressure to break the hours of service laws. This is one of the factors that makes truck driving a dangerous occupation.

I don't know if that is what led to a fatal crash this week just across the state line on I-85 in Anderson County, SC. However, authorities in Anderson County have already concluded that a truck driver fell asleep at the wheel causing a wreck that killed three people. According to the coroner, an autopsy ruled out a stroke or heart problem.

South Carolina state troopers report that a big rig driven by Eddie Wyatt, 69,of Rockmart, Ga., was southbound on I-85, when it careened across the median into the northbound lanes, crashing head on into another tractor trailer head on. The second 18 wheeler jack-knifed and struck an SUV and a pick-up truck.

Both tractor trailer drivers, Wyatt and , Clay Johnson, 38 of Charlotte, N.C., were killed.

The third fatality was Jeremy Wilson, 33, a lawyer in Lincolnton, N.C., who was driving a Toyota Tundra towing a fishing boat on a trailer.

Curtis and Beverly Schulze, were airlifted to Greenville Memorial Hospital. They were released on Sunday.

Top 100 public motor carriers in the US

Sun, 17 Jul 2011 16:44:09 -0500

In a major crossroads of interstate truck traffic, we in metro Atlanta frequently see tractor trailers from the nation's largest trucking companies on our roads. Wherever they travel in the United States, they are regulated by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations.

Here are the top 100 public trucking carriers in the US in 2010, the largest of which is UPS, based right here in metro Atlanta:

UPS Inc.
FedEx Corp.
DHL USA
YRC Worldwide Inc.
Ryder System
Con-way Inc.
Penske Truck Leasing Co.
J.B. Hunt Transport Services
Schneider National Inc.
Swift Transportation
Landstar System
Sirva Inc.
Werner Enterprises
TransForce Inc.
UniGroup Inc.
Arkansas Best Corp.
U.S. Xpress Enterprises
Estes Express Lines
Purolator Courier Ltd.
Old Dominion Freight Line
Greatwide Logistics Services
C.R. England Inc.
Crete Carrier Corp.
Saia Inc.
Prime Inc.
NFI Industries
Averitt Express
Atlas World Group
Southeastern Freight Lines
Ruan Transportation Management Systems
Lynden Inc.
CRST International
Kenan Advantage Group
Knight Transportation
Vitran Corp.
Quality Distribution Inc.
Covenant Transportation Group
Anderson Trucking Service
Marten Transport
Trimac Group
Universal Truckload Services Inc.
Celadon Group
Stevens Transport
Dart Transit Co.
Interstate Distributor Co.
Heartland Express
Roadrunner Transportation Systems
TransX Group
Western Express
Shevell Group
AAA Cooper Transportation
Forward Air Corp.
Comcar Industries
USA Truck
RoadLink
Frozen Food Express Industries
Canada Cartage System
Contrans Group
Mullen Group
Central Refrigerated Service Inc.
Dynamex Inc.
P.A.M. Transportation Services Inc.
Challenger Group
Gordon Trucking Inc.
Mercer Transportation
3PD Inc.
TransAm Trucking
Graebel Cos.
KLLM Transport Services
Cardinal Logistics Management
The Suddath Cos.
Pitt Ohio Express
Super Service Holdings (formerly Gainey Corp.)
Mesilla Valley Transportation
Specialized Transportation Inc.
Calyx Transportation Group
Roehl Transport
Koch Companies Inc.
Bridge Terminal Transport Inc.
Epes Carriers Inc.
Dayton Freight Lines Inc.
Central Freight Lines
Bennett International Group
Duie Pyle Cos.
Transport America
Cowan Systems
United Road Services
Navajo Express
Maverick USA
Milan Express Co.
Superior Bulk Logistics
A&R Logistics
Consolidated Fastfrate
Evans Network of Cos.
Velocity Express
U.S. 1 Industries
Paschall Truck Lines
Groendyke Transport
Arpin Group
Jack Cooper Transport Co

Top 100 private carriers are a major part of US trucking

Sun, 17 Jul 2011 16:34:05 -0500

Atlanta has always been a transportation hub from its founding as a railroad town in the 1840s. At the crossroads of I-75, I-85 and I-20, Atlanta is a center of interstate trucking activity as well. On our highways we see trucks from most of the largest trucking companies in the US. Fortunately, most operate pretty safely most of the time, but unfortunately some do not.

Private carriers transport their own products, as opposed to public carriers that haul for others. While the general public may not think of these as “trucking companies” but their truck fleets are regulated by Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations as motor carriers hauling for other companies.

Here are the top 100 private trucking carriers, as listed by Transport Topics.

1. PepsiCo Inc.
2. Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc.
3. Sysco Corp.
4. Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
5. U.S. Foodservice
6. Tyson Foods Inc.
7. Halliburton Co.
8. Dean Foods Co.
9. Dr Pepper Snapple Group
10. Baker Hughes Inc.
11. McLane Co.
12. Performance Food Group
13. Reyes Holdings
14. Schlumberger Limited
15. Agrium Inc.
16. Key Energy Services
17. Airgas Inc.
18. Oldcastle Inc.
19. Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Consolidated
20. Supervalu Inc.
21. Safeway Inc.
22. Gordon Food Service
23. Hostess Brands Inc.
24. United Rentals Inc.
25. MDU Resources Group
26. International Paper Co.
27. CHS Inc.
28. Weatherford International
29. MBM Foodservice
30. Prairie Farms Inc.
31. Praxair Inc.
32. Shaw Industries Group
33. Ben E. Keith Co.
34. Delhaize America
35. Dot Foods
36. Perdue Inc.
37. Cemex Inc.
Linde North America
38. Walgreen Co.
39. Kellogg Co.
40. RSC Equipment Rental
41. Clean Harbors Inc.
42. Basic Energy Services
43. BlueLinx Holdings
44. Kraft Foods Inc.
45. Castellini Group
46. Plains All American Pipeline
47. Sunbelt Rentals Inc.
48. H-E-B Grocery Co.
49. Nabors Industries
50. Archer Daniels Midland
51. Land O’ Lakes Inc.
52. AmeriGas Partners
53. Air Products Inc.
54. Publix Super Markets
55. Advanced Drainage Systems
56. Leggett & Platt Inc.
57. Food Services of America
58. Ashley Furniture Industries
59. Pilot Flying J Inc.
60. Quanta Services
Sanderson Farms Inc.
61. Mohawk Industries Inc.
62. Pepsi Bottling Ventures
63. American Air Liquide
64. United Natural Foods
65. Bunzl Distribution USA
66. Ace Hardware Corp.
67. Wakefern Food Corp.
68. Helena Chemical Co.
69. Sentinel Transportation
70. Patterson-UTI Energy
71. Cardinal Health Inc.
Foster Farms
72. Army & Air Force Exchange Service
Core-Mark Holding Co.
73. Ashland Inc.
74. Sherwin-Williams Co.
75. Mobile Mini Inc.
76. Genuine Parts Co.
77. Gilster-Mary Lee Corp.
78. Silver Eagle Distributors
79. Darling International
80. Stericycle Inc.
81. ABC Supply Co. Inc.
82. Chrysler Transport
83. True Value Co.
84. Austin Powder Co.
(tie) McKee Foods Corp.
85. CVS Caremark Corp.
86. HD Supply Inc.
87. Costco Wholesale Corp.
88. Unisource Worldwide
89. Owens & Minor Inc.
90. Valley Proteins Inc.
91. Bridgestone Americas
92. IFCO Systems North America
93. Cargill Meat Logistics Solutions
94. Trinity Industries Inc.
95. Stock Building Supply
96. Bimbo Bakeries USA
97. Sealy Corp.
98. Safety-Kleen Systems
99. Builders FirstSource Inc.
McGriff Industries
100. Grocers Supply Co.

Impaired tractor trailer driver fails to slow before crashing into slowed vehicle in NC, kills one

Sun, 17 Jul 2011 15:36:36 -0500

A tractor trailer driver did not slow from 65 mph before crashing into a line of vehicles that had slowed for traffic on I-40 in North Carolina on June 30th. One passenger vehicle caught fire, and one person was killed.

According to a report from the North Carolina Highway Patrol, 50-year-old tractor trailer driver Ronald Eugene Graybeal of Newport, Tennessee was charged with felony death by vehicle, driving while impaired and possessing drugs including marijuana and methadone. According to media reports, he was convicted of rape in Cocke County, Tenn., in 1981 and is listed on the national sex offender's registry.

Graybeal was driving for Hawley Transport Services of Newport, TN, a company with ten trucks and ten drivers. That company's records with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration indicate a score of 82.4% on "fatigued driving - hours of service" in on-road inspections in the past two years. Out of 73 relevant Inspections, 21 of those discovered a total of 29 fatigued driving violations.

Hawley Transport also has multiple prior reports of unsafe driving and vehicle maintenance violations.

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations have zero tolerance for use of drugs that can impair drivers. Trucking companies are required to have random drug tests of drivers. However, when we sue trucking companies after catastrophic crashes, we often find companies that have continued operation after being cited dozens of times for failure to comply with drug testing rules, as well as hours of service and vehicle maintenance violations. This often appears to be part of a slack corporate culture that disregards safety rules.

US agrees to allow Mexican tractor trailers to operate here

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 17:37:08 -0500

While Georgia is a long way from the Mexican border, as a tractor trailer and big rig accident trial lawyer based in Atlanta, I have for several years followed the controversy over allowing Mexican trucking companies to operate in the United States. Concerns about safety rules and practices in Mexican trucking have simmered since 1995.

Today the U.S. and Mexico signed an agreement to allow Mexican tractor trailers and big rigs to operate in the U.S. and suspend retaliatory Mexican tariffs that added 5 to 25 percent to the cost of U.S. exports sold in Mexico.

This is the latest development in the long-running controversy to concerns about the safety standards of Mexican trucking, which long blocked North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) rules permitting Mexican trucks to cross beyond a 25- mile border zone.

The USDOT justifies today’s action by saying that Mexican trucks must comply with all Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, and will have electronic monitoring systems to track hours on the road, and that Mexican tractor trailer truck drivers must take drug tests that are analyzed in the U.S., hand over complete driving records and prove their English-language skills.

A previous cross-border pilot program for trucking certification program in 2009 included only 157 Mexican trucks.

Reactions from interest groups has varied widely:

• The US Chamber of Commerce supports the agreement as “a vital step toward a more efficient U.S.-Mexico border,” according to a statement from COC president Thomas Donohue. Truckers drop trailers at the border before crossing. Older rigs, often called transfers, pick them up to cross and leave them for a long-haul truck waiting on the other side.

• Regarding safety concerns, the Conservative Daily News blog points out that while USDOT will pay for electronic on-board recorder (EOBR) to monitor hours of service of Mexican tractor trailers, an “EOBR cannot determine if the driver of the commercial vehicle is working other than driving, or if this driver is asleep or awake. It will not ‘automatically’ do anything as the driver still must manually enter whether a change of duty status has occurred or not.” It quotes a report issued from the Congressional Research Service in February of 2010 which stated:

“The rationale of eliminating the truck drayage segment at the border, and of NAFTA in general, is to reduce the cost of trade between the two countries, thus raising each nation’s economic welfare. However the cost to federal taxpayers of ensuring Mexican truck safety, estimated by the U.S. DOT to be over $500 million as of March 2008, appears to be disproportionate to the amount of dollars saved thus far by U.S. importers or exporters that have been able to utilize long-haul trucking authority. . . . Any accumulated savings in trucking costs enjoyed by shippers therefore should be weighed against the public cost of funding the safety inspection regime for Mexican long-haul carriers.”

• The American Association for Justice Interstate Trucking Litigation Group, of which I am a board member, urged USDOT to bring up to date liability insurance coverage requirements, which have been unchanged since 1980, prior to implementing the cross-border program. The $750,000 minimum liability coverage for interstate motor carriers adopted in 1980 would be nearly $2,000,000 today if simply adjusted for inflation. USDOT responded:

“Mexico-domiciled motor carriers must establish financial responsibility, as required by 49 CFR part 387, through an insurance carrier licensed in a State in the United States. Based on the terms provided in the required endorsement, FMCSA Form MCS-90, if there is a final judgment against the motor carrier for loss and damages associated with a crash in the United States, the insurer must pay the claim. The financial responsibility claims would involve legal proceedings in the United States and an insurer based here. There is no reason that a Mexico-domiciled motor carrier, insured by a U.S.-based company, should be required to have a greater level of insurance coverage than a U.S.-based motor carrier. Increasing the minimum levels of financial responsibility for all motor carriers is beyond the scope of this notice and would require a rulemaking. In accordance with section 350(a)(1)(B)(iv), FMCSA must verify participating motor carriers’ proof of insurance through a U.S., State-licensed insurer. As a result, participating motor carriers may not self-insure.”

• The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) is bitterly critical of the action, and is challenging it in court in Washington. OOIDA asserts that Mexico has failed to institute regulations and enforcement programs that are even remotely similar to those in the United States, and there would be no relevant corresponding reciprocity for U.S. truckers. According to OOIDA, “This program will jeopardize the livelihoods of tens of thousands of U.S.-based small business truckers and professional truck drivers and undermine the standard of living for the rest of the driver community.”

• Teamsters Union president Jim Hoffa also questioned legality of the program because it grants permanent operating authority to Mexican trucks after 18 months in the "pilot program" without Congressional authorization, and because DOT would use money from the Highway Trust Fund to pay for electronic on-board recorders for Mexican trucks. He said, "opening the border to dangerous trucks at a time of high unemployment and rampant drug violence is a shameful abandonment of the DOT's duty to protect American citizens from harm and to spend American tax dollars responsibly."

• Industry groups that export to Mexico, and are impacted by retaliatory Mexican tariffs, support the decision. They include the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) , California grape growers , and Washington State apple growers.

This Georgia truck wreck lawyer may run down to the mall to buy a Rosetta Stone home study course on Spanish.