Commercial Trucking: Safety and Infrastructure Issues Under the North American Free Trade Agreement

Details

• Corporate Creators:
  United States. Government Accountability Office
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  Commercial Vehicle Operations Highway Safety International Borders International Compacts International Transportation Mexico Motor Carriers North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Regulations Trucking Safety United States

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• Publication/ Report Number:
  GAO/RCED-96-61
• Resource Type:
  Research Paper
• Geographical Coverage:
  Mexico ; United States
• Corporate Publisher:
  United States. Government Accountability Office
• Abstract:
  The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) provided for the U.S.-Mexican border to be opened for increased commercial truck traffic within the respective border states-four in the United States (Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas) and six in Mexico. Before the treaty, the 11,000 trucks crossing daily from Mexico into the United States were limited to commercial zones along the border. Because there are major differences between U.S. and Mexican trucking regulations and operating practices that could adversely affect highway safety and infrastructure in the United States, the General Accounting Office (GAO) evaluated the major implementation efforts associated with opening the U.S.-Mexican border to commercial trucking. Specifically, the GAO (1) reviewed efforts to make compatible the differing trucking regulations of the United States and Mexico; (2) identified major differences in U.S. and Mexican trucking regulations and operating and enforcement practices that could adversely affect highway safety and infrastructure; and (3) reviewed federal and state governments' readiness to ensure that trucks from Mexico comply with U.S. trucking regulations. In early December 1995, the GAO reported significant safety concerns relating to trucks from Mexico that were operating in the commercial zones within the United States. This report updates and summarizes the major points in those briefings. The key briefing charts, showing the characteristics of and differences between U.S. and Mexican commercial trucking, are included as appendix I. 943k, 56p.
• Format:
  PDF
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:7fa13e81240c4d7e16b9157c4d73c1c96632abcff13dd01125ccfed36d132bfdd7c3bb01abb862657262a783fdf93aac412b415e33a14f7ecd456b687fd66fbb
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/13848/dot_13848_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 951.24 KB ]