FMC urged to repeal terminal lease wait period exemption

FMC urged to repeal terminal lease wait period exemption    The National Industrial Transportation League in a letter this week urged the Federal Maritime Commission to reinstitute 45-day waiting periods before marine terminal operator leases take effect at U.S. ports.
   The NIT League is backing terminal operators in their push to get the FMC to repeal an existing exemption from the 45-day waiting period, which enabled terminal operating leases from ports go into effect immediately upon their signing. The FMC granted the exemption in 1987 when it ruled that canceling the waiting period 'would not substantially impair effective regulation by the commission, be unjustly discriminatory or detrimental to commerce, nor result in a substantial reduction of competition.'

Carlton

   NIT League President Bruce Carlton said the league has supported the exemption because permitting marine terminal operating (MTO) agreements to come into effect immediately 'has not been problematic in the past.'
   However, in recent years, 'MTO agreements have become more complex and broader in scope, with greater potential for anticompetitive impacts on the shipping public and other operators at the ports,' he said.
   The issue has surfaced most recently with proposed leases at terminals in Los Angeles and Long Beach, where port authorities have included language in new leases that calls for regulation of harbor truckers as part of their clean truck programs.
   'While many aspects of the agreement were worthy of the goals and objectives it sought to achieve, the league also cited other aspects of the agreement which would deny access to drayage trucks and set forth various fees on cargo owners and drayage operators,' the NIT League said in an e-mail advisory to its members on Wednesday. 'These matter go far beyond the traditional landlord/tenant MTO agreement filed with the FMC.'