L.A., Long Beach Delay Plan for Port Drayage Trucks
By Andrea Fischer, Staff Reporter
This story appears in the July 2 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.
The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have delayed adopting their controversial truck concession program that would bar owner-operators from doing business at the nation’s busiest ports, after widespread objections by trucking, intermodal and shipping firms.
Port commissioners originally were scheduled to vote on the plan in July but said June 27 they will push that back to September to evaluate public comments and do an economic impact study.
“In the interests of fairness to those who offered their input, we need time to evaluate their suggestions,” said Richard Steinke, executive director of the Port of Long Beach. “We remain committed to aggressively improving air quality with a Clean Trucks Program, and our aim is to get this right.”
The ports also will conduct an economic impact study, to be completed in late August or early September, to determine the cost of the proposed system.
Art Wong, spokesman for the Clean Trucks Plan, said, “We need to look at the potential economic consequences and factor that into the recommendation our staff will make to the port commissioners. . . . Some very legitimate questions have been raised.”
In letters and comment to the ports, trucking, intermodal and shipping groups opposed the plan, saying it would threaten port commerce and put small drayage companies and independent owner-operators out of business.
“The ports are listening to the comments they have received from industry. . . . It’s very encouraging that we can take a second look at this,” said Patty Senecal, intermodal chairwoman of the California Trucking Association.
Environmental and labor groups have urged the ports to approve the plan quickly, saying trucking companies, rather than independent drayage drivers, should be accountable for buying, retrofitting and maintaining environmentally clean trucks.
Under the Clean Air Plan the ports must develop in order to expand, the drivers of about 16,000 port trucks — mostly independent owner-operators — would have to become employees of motor-carrier companies that would bid on port concession contracts containing strict environmental and workplace requirements (11-27, p. 29).
In letters to the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, intermodal and shipping groups said the plan would eliminate competition among drayage carriers, a move that would have an “unprecedented economic impact.”
“Unfortunately, the ports have not calculated . . . the cost of restricting competition [in the truck drayage sector], but the private sector has — these plans are estimated to increase drayage costs by $250 to $500 per container — in many cases more than the profit margin of the container,” Peter Friedmann, executive director of the Agriculture Transportation Coalition, wrote in a June 18 letter to the ports.
“By limiting truck competition, . . . the ports will significantly increase costs,” and those costs will ultimately be paid by shippers, Friedmann said.
Similarly, the Intermodal Association of North America, an organization representing intermodal shippers, rail and ocean carrier groups, said in a June 20 letter to the ports that “IANA cannot support the Clean Trucks program as currently structured for compelling legal and commercial reasons.”
After the ports extended their consideration of the truck-concession plan, Adrian Martinez, a lawyer for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said, “Achieving the ports clean-air goals on time is of critical importance. We think they need to implement the program as it is proposed as soon as possible.”
But the ports decided to extend the time frame of the plan because, Wong said, “We’re dealing with the livelihoods of more than 16,000 people here, and the details of how we implement this program will determine how they work and if they can work in coming years. We know that this is going to be a major change, and we want it to be the least disruptive as possible.”
