PSC fights to continue regulating interstate trucking as it has for 33 years
By MARK BALLARD
The Advocate
Copyright 2006 Capital City Press
All Rights Reserved
BREAUX BRIDGE, La. - State Enforcement Agent Annette Romero watched an 18-wheeler as it passed a camera a half-mile away from her weigh-station post on westbound Interstate 10.
“How about this one?” she said, giving her colleague, Carlton Penn, the nod to light a sign asking the driver to pull over.
Thus began a two-hour odyssey of red tape for a Texas trucker on Thursday morning that ended only when he paid $200.
The traffic stop was an example of why the state Public Service Commission should continue to regulate interstate trucking, as it has for 33 years, said Bill Withers, assistant secretary in charge of enforcing the state’s trucking regulations.
The PSC’s efforts ensure that Louisiana drivers are financially protected when out-of-state truckers crash, he said.
The traffic stop is also the reason behind the trucking industry’s efforts to consolidate the enforcement duties, said Cathy F. Gautreaux, executive director for the Louisiana Motor Transport Association Inc., the lobbying group for the trucking industry.
Gov. Kathleen Blanco has until Monday to decide which agency - the PSC or the State Police - controls how the big rigs pass through this state.
House Bill 971 would give the State Police the primary authority to enforce a new system for overseeing the trucks that ship freight on Louisiana’s part of the nation’s highways.
The new federal system will dramatically increase the number of trucks that fall under the enforcement umbrella of whatever state agency Blanco chooses.
Under the new federal system, which takes effect Jan. 1, proof of insurance and other requirements become necessary to keep a truck’s registration valid. The new law will add, for the first time, private companies that ship their own goods in their own trucks across state lines to the same regulatory oversight that carriers for hire have.
“We’re seeking a consolidation to simplify,” Gautreaux said.
PSC opposes change
The Office of Motor Vehicles already handles truck registration, and state troopers perform 45-minute safety inspections on the handful of trucks they stop on the road. The state Department of Transportation and Development weighs the interstate rigs and their loads.
HB971 would allow the state to take advantage of the efficiencies created by the Internet by focusing enforcement on safety issues rather than on economic regulation, Gautreaux said.
Four of the state’s five elected Public Service Commissioners wrote Blanco last week suggesting their agency would go to court to protect its constitutional authority to oversee “common carriers.”
In addition to its constitutional mandate, the PSC already has in place the systems, employees and technology to handle the expanded federal system, the commissioners wrote.
PSC Chairman Jimmy Field of Baton Rouge and Commissioners C. Dale Sittig of Eunice, Jay Blossman of Mandeville and Lambert C. Boissiere III of New Orleans signed the letter. Commissioner Foster Campbell of Bossier City backs HB971 and did not sign.
Blanco chaired the PSC in the early 1990s.
Eighty percent of the fines collected go into the state budget. The rest pays for the PSC’s enforcement program.
The legislation would “greatly diminish” the PSC’s budget, the commissioners wrote.
The agency would retain jurisdiction over trucks that don’t leave the state but lose its main source of funding if HB971 becomes law, they wrote.
That means the commissioners would raise fees dramatically for in-state truckers and slash administrative costs, they wrote.
Most of the PSC’s trucking enforcement employees - 25 total, many of them earning about $35,000 annually - would lose their jobs, said Withers, who also would be laid off.
Coming up with $200
PSC agent Romero, 46, said she’ll look for work in Texas if Blanco signs HB971. Penn, 69, said he’d retire.
Neither received much sympathy from Jose G. Canales, 62, the Edinburgh, Texas, driver Romero and Penn pulled over Thursday.
For Canales, PSC enforcement means he was stuck on the edge of a swamp trying to find $200 on the final day of a 10-day trip that took him without incident from the Mexican border to Delaware and back again, he said through an interpreter, Juan Tinoco.
Canales found himself calculating whether he could still make his delivery deadline in Laredo, Texas. The two-hour delay disrupted his carefully drawn plan to pass through Houston and San Antonio before traffic-clogging rush hours.
“It’s not anything in particular you’re looking at,” said Romero, as she typed into a computer the federal number posted on the cab of every truck.
A complete snapshot of the trucking company came back in an instant, including registration information, accident ratio and insurance coverage.
“It’s the truck. It’s the driver. I don’t know. I’ve been doing this 20 years. You know it when you see it,” said Romero, describing how she decides whom to stop.
The federal Internet site showed that Rapid Transport Inc. had bought $750,000 of insurance in early June. It also showed that the company owned no trucks.
Can’t tell without a stop
Though the cab had a Rapid Transport sign and number, Canales makes his living leasing the rig he owns to various companies. That means Canales has to carry a piece of paper showing that Rapid Transport’s insurance would cover any wrecks he might have.
Canales had a folder full of old proofs of insurance, but not one from Rapid Transport.
The fine is $200. Because the PSC is a constitutional agency, Romero and Penn can demand Canales post the money immediately as a bond.
He can get his money back if he travels next month to a hearing in Baton Rouge, which Canales said he probably won’t do.
Canales would get his money back because he just forgot the piece of paper proving the coverage. Nobody in the other 10 states he passed through on this trip had asked to see the paper, he said.
Though the computer shows the company has insurance, that doesn’t mean Canales is covered, the PSC’s Withers said.
About half of the truckers on the highways today are owner-operators like Canales, Withers said. If one causes a wreck, the only way a Louisiana victim can get money to pay for his injuries is if the company’s insurance is extended to cover the independent operator it contracted.
Taxpayers are on the hook for damages caused by out-of-state truckers who crash, if the state does not adequately and systematically check for insurance, Withers said.
“We’re making damned sure he’s covered,” said Withers, nodding to Canales, who smiled.
Gautreaux, the trucking industry’s lobbyist, countered that troopers could just as easily make that check and they cover the entire state in their patrol cars.
“You don’t need another warm body at the weigh scales to access the database,” she said.
Consolidating enforcement functions would make government more efficient, Gautreaux said. That would make the system more economical and easier for truckers to comply with the law.
Lt. Col. Dane Morgan, the State Police’s legislative liaison, questioned whether state troopers have the technological capability to check trucking records via the Internet from the side of a road.
“They’ll have to communicate by radio or phone,” Morgan said.
Morgan said the State Police could not collect the money on the spot. But they could suspend licenses if the truckers don’t pay fines after a hearing.
PSC enforces Louisiana’s interstate trucking industry.
Fees and fines collected in 2005 $6.1 million
Given to state budget in 2005 $4.9 million
Tickets written in 2006 thru May 31 3,837
Fines collected in 2006 thru May 31 $1 million