Port of Long Beach Dropped From Clean Trucks Suit
The American Trucking Associations plan to drop the Port of Long Beach from a federal lawsuit filed after the port agreed to make it easier for trucking companies to register for business under the 1-year-old Clean Trucks Program.
The changes mean the ATA will drop the Port of Long Beach from its federal lawsuit, which challenges elements of the concession agreement instituted under the Clean Trucks Program. The Port of Los Angeles remains a defendant.
The port’s Harbor Commissioners approved the changes to the concession agreement on Oct. 19. It will now be known as a registration agreement.
Under the agreement, trucking companies will no longer have to hand over detailed financial statements to gain approval to pick up cargo at the port. Also, the port will not be able to dictate where trucks park outside the docks and which truck routes they should take, said Curtis Whalen, executive director of the ATA’s Intermodal Motor Carriers Conference.
Truckers wishing to haul cargo in and out of the port must still register with the port but only provide certain operational information to port authorities to comply with various safety, environment and security regulations. Registration is done once a completed form is submitted along with a $250 registration fee.
“We did not want to provide financial data for the port to review with no criteria just to see if our pockets were deep enough to operate at the port,” Whalen said. Independent truckers often don’t have a pool of capital lying around and often operate on finances that keep them going month to month.
“This is an important milestone for the program, reaching consensus with an important industry partner,” said Nick Sranek, president of the Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners.
The ATA and the Port of Long Beach have been meeting over the past few months to resolve their differences. Whalen said he has not met with Los Angeles port officials for over a year.
ATA’s federal lawsuit against Los Angeles challenges certain sections of the Clean Trucks Program that require truck drivers to be company employees. Before the Clean Trucks Program was implemented last year, about 90 percent of the 16,000 truckers calling at the ports were independent operators. The lawsuit, scheduled to go to trial in U.S. District Court some time in March, has halted the port from implementing licensing fees for port-approved motor carriers.
Last year, the Clean Trucks Program at the two ports banned all pre-1989 trucks. By 2012, the ports will prohibit trucks that don’t meet 2007 emissions standards.—Deborah Belgum
