PHOENIX
– Just a year after beginning a study to determine how to improve
efficiency and consistency at Arizona’s three primary international ports of
entry, Arizona Department of Transportation officials already are seeing
improvements that make the state a more attractive route for commercial
carriers.
“While safety remains our No. 1
goal, we want to be as efficient as possible at helping commerce move across
the border and into Arizona’s economy,” ADOT Director John Halikowski
said. “By working closely with international trucking interests, we are
supporting commercial traffic and boosting the economy not just in Arizona but
along the Interstate 10 corridor and across the nation.”
These successes stem from ADOT’s
use of a statewide systems approach championed by Gov. Doug Ducey for improving
state government operations. The Arizona Management System empowers employees
at state agencies to come up with innovative ways to better serve customers,
including taxpayers, visitors to Motor Vehicle Division offices and trucking
companies using Arizona’s ports of entry.
Commercial trucks entering
the United States at Nogales, Douglas and San Luis are vital to
Arizona’s economy. In 2015, about $30 billion in combined imports and exports
crossed the international border at those three spots.
Yet Arizona officials
were seeing a troubling trend: Some commercial trucking companies were using
ports at Calexico, California, and Laredo, Texas, rather
than coming through Arizona, even if Arizona was a more direct option.
Companies said that higher costs associated with crossing the border
in Arizona – including time lost during inspections, fines for
violations and higher insurance rates – helped steer them elsewhere.
Actions
Working with the Arizona Department
of Public Safety, inspectors from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration and a consulting group that helps organizations operate more
efficiently, ADOT inspectors have identified several critical changes that
improve operations at Arizona’s ports, beginning with the port of entry at
San Luis. The improved processes are now being rolled out at ports in Nogales
and Douglas.
“Our review helped us identify
things we could do better, such as making our inspection decisions consistent
at every location,” said Tim Lane, director of ADOT’s Enforcement and
Compliance Division, which provides safety inspections. “We’ve already brought
51 inspectors through new training to make that happen.”
Keys to success include education,
cross-border partnerships and using advanced technologies, Lane said.
“We also have begun doing a better
job of educating Mexican trucking companies and drivers about what we expect
during our safety inspections,” he added. “Our Border Liaison Unit already has
held seven meetings – including one in Mexico, with two more planned –
that explained our process to 158 people involved in international trucking.
The next step is a training process
for drivers called International Border Inspection Qualification. In classes
set to begin this month San Luis Río Colorado and later in
Hermosillo, capital city of Sonora, drivers can earn a certificate that will
demonstrate their understanding of the inspection process. Those drivers may
face shorter inspections before getting back on the road.
Another key step: Coordinating
inspections with other agencies. U.S. Customs and Border Protection
inspects the cargo in commercial vehicles entering the country, while the
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and ADOT check trucks for safety
issues. By coordinating their inspections, federal and state officials are
reducing inspection times and company costs while encouraging more trucking
companies to cross the border in Arizona.
Other improvements include having
inspectors record their work on tablets during inspections rather than entering
the results afterward in a separate building, and focusing on trucks deemed to
have a higher risk of violations, including those without decals from previous
inspections and those from companies with histories of safety violations.
Results
In the first few months,
inspections at San Luis are down by more than 10 percent, inspection times are
down 23 percent and 80 percent of commercial trucking companies rated the
new process as excellent or very good. By focusing on higher-risk trucks,
inspectors found 33 percent more safety violations, even as the number and
length of inspections went down.
As a result, business is returning
to Arizona. Commercial traffic at the San Luis port is up 7 percent in
just two months. Seven companies that left Arizona for Calexico have
returned, and 15 new companies are coming through Arizona, representing an
increase of 102 trucks in all.
“We will continue looking at ways
to improve the inspection process at all three ports,” Lane said. “But we’re
starting to see real change.”
|