Appeals Court Sides With Truckers on Ports' Clean Trucks Program
Truckers hauling cargo in and out of the two ports in the Los Angeles area won a major victory on March 20 when the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that part of the Clean Trucks Program violates federal law.
A unanimous decision by a three-judge panel sends the matter back to the U.S. District Court, which last summer denied a preliminary injunction sought by the American Trucking Associations to block a portion of the Clean Trucks Program requiring truckers to be enrolled in a concession program that governs certain aspects of their operation.
“The Port of Los Angeles concession agreement does overreach considerably more than does the Port of Long Beach concession agreement,” the appeals court said in its decision. “However, each is likely to result in at least some irreparable harm to the motor carriers, and, on balance, the District Court abused its discretion when it denied a preliminary injunction as to significant parts of the agreementhellip;.We do note that the Los Angeles port’s independent contractor phase-out provision is highly likely to be found preempted and enjoined.”
“The decision today does not change the legal status of our Clean Trucks Program or any other requirements currently in effect at the Port,” Richard Steinke, executive director of the Port of Long Beach, said in a statement. “The Port will continue to study the decision and appropriate next steps of the Court of Appeals, and anticipates that further proceedings will be held promptly before the District Court.”
Comments from the Port of Los Angeles were not immediately available.
The appeals court mandated that the U.S. District Court quickly grant the preliminary injunction, which would put a damper on the Port of Los Angeles’ attempt to have at least 20 percent of all cargo collected be done by employee truckers. In the past, it was mostly independent truck drivers who serviced the ports.
“Once the injunction is granted, you cannot deny owner-operators [independent drivers] from entering the port during the injunction,” said Curtis Whalen of the American Trucking Associations, the umbrella group for state trucking associations.
The Port of Long Beach has taken a more liberal approach allowing independent truckers to call at the port, but they must be registered under the concession program.
The ports initiated the Clean Trucks Program last year to take older trucks out of the system and gradually replace them with models built after 2007. Starting Oct. 1, truckers built before 1989 were banned.
The $2 billion program will help companies buy new trucks through a cargo container fee of $70 per 40-foot container and another fee on dirty trucks. The idea is to eliminate 80 percent of the diesel pollution coming from trucks in the next five years. “We have always argued we are not trying to block the fee collection [for clean trucks], the retirement of old trucks or the truck-driver registry to make sure you don’t have old trucks entering the facilities. We feel they could have done this without all the contractual rigmarole,” Whalen said. After a preliminary injunction, the matter will be scheduled for a District Court trial later this year.—Deborah Belgum
