ATA Files Response to SoCal Ports’ Concession Plans
American Trucking Associations said Friday it has filed a reply in U.S. District Court to the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach’s defense of their concession plans.
ATA filed its reply in U.S. District Court with the support of its Intermodal Motor Carriers Conference, saying it believes the concession programs “unlawfully re-regulate the port trucking industry to the detriment of motor carriers, shippers, businesses and consumers that depend on the products that are handled at those ports.”
ATA said the ports are reshaping the port drayage market and undercutting the ability of smaller motor carriers to compete in the market by utilizing subsidies to entice national motor carriers to operate under what it considers a costly and “draconian” regulatory system.
The port plans structure the market by state regulation rather than competition, driving up cargo costs that quickly will translate to higher prices for consumers, ATA said.
“The Port of Los Angeles’ further intrusion into the competitive structure of the drayage market makes the ATA lawsuit even more important and illustrates precisely the type of disruption of trucking services in the economy that Congress found so inefficient and disruptive,” said ATA President Bill Graves.
“Creating an artificial, non-competitive market with highly inflated costs and prices hinders our national competitive ability and sets a dangerous precedent,” he said in a statement.
ATA filed suit late last month to block part of the clean truck program plans of the Port of Los Angeles and its neighboring Port of Long Beach, saying that their separate plans adopted earlier this year — one of which bans independent drayage operators — go beyond cleaning the ports’ air.
The ports last week filed opposition responses, in response to that suit.
