For Trucking, a New Millennium With Old Problems

Although the new millennium arrived without a hitch, it was an unsettling year for freight haulers as many of the trends that plagued trucking in 1999 — from rising fuel costs to a persistent shortage of drivers — continued to dog carriers in 2000.

Frustration over low pay and poor working conditions boiled over at many of the nation’s maritime ports. Independent truck owners staged walkouts in Vancouver, British Columbia, and then expanded to Seattle, the Port of Tacoma, Wash., and other sites throughout the country. Miami was especially hard hit as thousands of drivers refused to move containers at the nation’s 10th largest port.

The Teamsters union launched an effort to organize drivers, putting forth a Port Truckers Bill of Rights, which stipulated a right to health insurance, pension benefits, fair wages paid for all the time worked, safe and road-ready equipment at the time of dispatch and the freedom to organize and join a union.

Union organizers had little success, however, because most port drivers are classified as owner-operators and as such are not permitted to bargain collectively under antitrust laws because it would be viewed as an illegal restraint on trade.

Efforts were made to reclassify port truck drivers as employees under labor law, but in a key decision, a three-judge panel in California decreed that drivers in the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are owner-operators, not employees.

A convoy of 150 trucks pulled into the nation’s capital March 16 for the first of several protests against soaring fuel prices. Drivers called for a suspension of a federal fuel tax, release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and a federal investigation into the fuel crisis. The convoy was organized by the newly formed National Owner-Operator Trucking Association.

For the full story, see the Jan. 1 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.