By Eric Miller, Staff Reporter This story appears in the May 10 print edition of Transport Topics.
After facing off in federal court in Los Angeles last month, attorneys for American Trucking Associations and the Port of Los Angeles are expected to file their final post-trial briefs this week in the contentious court dispute over parts of the port’s clean trucks program.
ATA and the port then will await a final decision by Judge Christina Snyder, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, who is expected to rule no later than the end of June on whether to allow the port to ban owner-operators from performing drayage on its premises.
ATA sued in 2008, attempting to block the port’s diesel emissions reduction plan, which calls for a phased-in requirement that all drayage truck drivers be company employees rather than independent contractors.
ATA is asking Snyder to find the port’s concession agreement in violation of the federal preemption clause that gives the federal government and not the ports the right to regulate interstate trucking.
“There is a federal law that says states and localities can’t impose laws and regulation on motor carriers that affect their rates, routes and services,” said Robert Digges, vice president and chief counsel for ATA.
The plan’s concessionaire arrangement, most of which Snyder has halted temporarily, also contains requirements related to off-street parking, truck maintenance, proof of financial capability and placards.
Both sides said they thought the weeklong trial, which concluded April 28, went well for them.
“I was very pleased with the facts that we were able to establish at the hearing,” Digges said. “I also believe that the port added nothing new to its case, and it became clear that they had no data to support the owner-operator ban and the other provisions that were at issue.”
Phillip Sanfield, a port spokesman, said, “We are pleased that we were able to present all the facts in this important case. We are hopeful that the court will uphold the full concession agreement to provide accountability and sustainability of the clean truck program in the future.”
No matter who wins, the case is likely to be appealed, Digges said.
Those who testified in the case ranged from former Harbor Commission President David Freeman to former Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Administrator Annette Sandberg, who acted as an expert witness for ATA.
After the trial concluded, Snyder was given a tour of the port.
Port officials have asked Snyder to ban owner-operators from the port because they believe the emissions reduction plan will not succeed over the long run because only employers have the financial ability to properly maintain trucks.
While ATA has not objected to the port’s ban on dirty trucks, it has argued that the plan interferes with carriers’ business models.
The port, however, has maintained that it has the authority to impose the concession requirements because of safety concerns, and that its actions were taken as a drayage “market participant” or proprietor of a port, not as a government regulator.
