Thank's for the link to the complaint form. I sent mine today. It reads:
I am writing to express my concern over the confusion over crossing with an RV from Mexico into the USA at the Columbia, TX border crossing.
We drive a Class C motorhome towing a car. Our total length is 49 feet. Three years ago we approached the Columbia border station and looked for a lane for RV's. We could not see one and the "Truck" lanes that head off to the right looked like they were for commercial vehicles only. Again there were no signs or markings of any kind concerning RV's. We proceeded straight ahead to the "Car" lanes and when we got almost to the booth someone came out to tell us to back up and go to the "Truck" area. With the car attached we cannot back up more that six to ten feet without jackknifing so your people had to remove some cones and temporary barriers for us to make a u-turn.
The next year we automatically drove up the "Truck" lane and when we got to the booth we were told we had to make a u-turn and go through the "Car" area. The lanes through the car booths are quite narrow but our motorhome is only 7'6" wide and we made it with a couple of inched to spare.
Would you please designate a lane for RV's and clearly mark that lane? This will make things so much easier for both your agents and us travelers. Your people have better things to do than help us back up or turn around and we endanger our own rigs and other vehicles by having to make u-turns in the confined spaces, especially when it is busy.
This is a concern of many other RV'ers who have had similar experiences at this crossing. Thank you for your attention in this matter.
* The address I gave is our temporary address in the USA where we are passing through on our way home to Canada. Your form would not accept my permanent address in Canada and that is:
****** ******* *****
Campbell River, BC
Canada V9W 1B5
I got an auto response indicating they received the message.
* This post was
edited 03/26/12 11:12am by crandle *
Croft Randle complaint of a lack of uniformity at the POE and suggestion to clearly mark which lane(s) RV's are supposed to queue in. Incident: 120326-000437
Thank you for contacting the CBP INFO Center Complaints Branch online, Mr. Randle. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) appreciates that you took the time to email us concerning these incidents, and for providing a logical suggestion to correct the non-uniformity.
Your complaint and suggestion has been forwarded to the Laredo Port Director's office for review and appropriate action.
Thank you again for contacting the CBP INFO Center Complaints Branch online.
Well, we went through Columbia today. Still no hints as to which lane so I drove up the car lane and went through. We had a couple of inches on each side, the dog had a good sniff and passed us through.
One of the last times I re-entered Laredo via bridge #2 the US Customs lines were curved and had steel well casings painted yellow dividing the lines. I got through them but it was very close. I don't think they give much thought to RVs returning from Mexico.
I don't think our letters did much good. Maybe they want to keep us off balance when we go through. Maybe they think we will give away our "secrets" if we are unsure where we should be. It is not how I would run things but I am not running things.
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, and Lab/Golden mix, Sandy.
