Fight Over Port Trucking to Heat Up Soon
The nation’s largest trucking association is getting ready to file a federal lawsuit at the end of June against the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach over a plan to alter the way cargo is picked up by trucks.
At issue are parts of the new Clean Trucks Program that go into effect Oct. 1 at both ports.
The Clean Trucks Program aims to gradually reduce the amount of pollution generated by diesel-burning trucks. The ports are planning to spend $2 billion to replace about 16,000 polluting trucks with cleaner models. Starting Oct. 1, all pre-1989 trucks will be banned. Gradually, all trucks must meet 2007 truck-emissions standards by 2012. The program is being funded by a $20-per-20-foot container fee.
As part of the program, the Port of Los Angeles is requiring all truck drivers calling at the docks to be employees of trucking companies. The Port of Long Beach is taking a different approach. It will allow independent truck drivers to haul cargo, but they must be contracted with a licensed motor carrier that has been granted a five-year concession. Currently, about 80 percent of the 16,000 truck drivers working with the ports are independent operators who own their own rigs.
The Port of Long Beach concession requires trucking companies to have scheduled maintenance on their rigs, provide proof of insurance, tag their vehicles with radio-frequency identification devices, meet certain security requirements, register drivers and trucks with the ports, and provide proof that health insurance was made available to drivers.
The trucking industry believes all these requirements smack of regulation, which was abolished in the 1980s.
“The ports are trying to tell us how to do our business,” said Curtis Whalen, executive director of the Intermodal Motor Carriers Conference, which is part of the American Trucking Associations.
The ATA is preparing a lawsuit to be filed near the end of June in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, questioning the way the Clean Trucks Program is being administered, Whalen said. “We are going to seek a temporary restraining order and injunction to stop the concession agreement and the employee mandate,” the trucking-industry executive said. “They can move forward with the Clean Trucks Program to get clean air, but they can’t regulate our business.”
However, the ports believe their trucking requirements will hold up in court. “We believe we will be able to move forward with the Clean Trucks Program as we planned and reap the benefits of clean air,” said Lee Peterson, a Port of Long Beach spokesperson. —Deborah Belgum
