L.A. City Council approves port truck plan, container taxes

L.A. City Council approves port truck plan, container taxes The Los Angeles City Council has approved the Port of Los Angeles' drayage re-regulation plan that seeks to eliminate independent owner-operators from the local port-servicing truck industry.
   The City Council approval was the final legislative hurdle preventing the port from starting initial phases of the truck plan next month.
   The required city vote also included approval of two container taxes that will add $50 to the cost of each TEU moving through the port via truck.
   With city approval in hand, the port is expected to post long-awaited details of a truck plan licensing scheme that forms a major component of the truck plan.
   The $2.2 billion trucking plan, adopted in slightly differing versions by the neighboring ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, aims to cut diesel pollution through an elaborate system that will replace or retrofit the more than 17,000 drayage trucks servicing the ports by 2013. The plan bans certain model year trucks from servicing the ports on a progressive yearly basis beginning with pre-1989 trucks on Oct. 1.
   The plan also requires motor carriers to obtain an access license from the ports to allow their fleets to service the ports' facilities. To obtain a license, motor carriers must agree to port-defined stipulations ranging from business practices to labor criteria.
   To raise the money needed to pay for the replacements or retrofits of the privately owned vehicles, the ports plan to impose a $35-per-TEU tax on all containers drayed from port facilities. While not a component of the truck plan, the ports also plan to institute a $15-per-TEU tax to pay for infrastructure development within the ports.
   While the two ports developed the plan jointly, they split on details of the licensing scheme, most notably on employment status of drivers.
   Access licenses for facilities at the Port of Long Beach will be available to trucking firms whether they employ independent-owner operators, per-hour employees, or any combination of the two.
   Los Angeles port officials, under pressure from the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, adopted licensing criteria mandating that trucking firms only employ per-hour employees. Los Angeles port officials modified their criteria slightly several weeks ago to provide trucking firms a five-year phased transition period to 100 percent hourly employees.
   The port also plans to open a facility on Terminal Island next week to allow trucking firms to register their vehicles in a drayage registry, a prerequisite to obtaining an access license. The port plans to hold a June 16 meeting, the same day access license registration is set to begin, to explain to trucking firms the process of applying for a truck plan access license.
   The ports' truck plan, long opposed by the American Trucking Association and other industry groups, is likely to end up in court by the end of June. The ATA, which represents about 37,000 trucking firms nationwide, said it is preparing to sue the ports over the truck plan over alleged violation of the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution and the Shipping Act of 1984. ATA officials have stated on numerous occasions that a 'triggering event,' such as the registration of truck for the registry, would likely prompt the filing of the already prepared suit. ' Keith Higginbotham