L.A. port board president wants local trucking industry consolidation

L.A. port board president wants local trucking industry consolidation The board president of one of Southern California's two ports is making it clear, with recent public and private statements, that he wants and expects a controversial ports-proposed truck plan to end in the consolidation of the local trucking industry into a small number of trucking companies with financial 'deep pockets.'
      The statements of S. David Freeman, president of the Port of Los Angeles Harbor Commission, come despite recent changes to the proposed Long Beach and Los Angeles ports' trucking plan that would allow any current port-servicing truck company to apply for a port-access license.
   Under the $1.8 billion now being finalized by the two neighboring ports, current port trucking companies would require a port-administered license to operate within the neighboring Long Beach and Los Angeles ports. To obtain a license, trucking firms would have to meet a long list of port-defined criteria on everything from driver documentation and company finances to insurance and workers' compensation. (See 'SoCal ports truck plan licensing guidelines revealed,' June 29 California Connections.)
   Trucking firms would also have to agree to use only paid-by-the-hour employee drivers instead of the current system where more than 90 percent of the 16,800 port drivers are independent owner-operators paid by the individual load.
   The trucks of port-licensed firms would also have to meet port-defined emissions standards according to a five-year schedule that would ban certain model years of truck each Jan. 1 through 2012. Dirty trucks would be charged a fee to enter port facilities, which would be combined with port and state money to replace older trucks with newer cleaner-burning or alternative fuel models.
   When first announced in March, the ports' plan indicated that there would be a limited number of the licenses available — some port officials suggested as few as 100 — thereby excluding a vast majority of the estimated 1,300 truck firms serving the ports. Plan critics have repeatedly said that limits on the number of licenses available would result in the consolidation of the local port trucking industry into a few large companies. The consolidation would result, according to research data, in the possible loss of at least 1,000 workers of smaller truck companies as the firms are forced out of business by the lack of a port license.
   In seeming response to these criticisms, the ports first softened the certitude of having a fixed number of licenses, then removed the idea altogether, saying last week that the plan would be available to any trucking company meeting their criteria.
   Freeman, a driving force behind the ports' truck plan, seems to disagree with his staff's removal of the limit in the most current version of the plan being circulated to the public.
   He told July 27 listeners of the local public radio talk show, Which Way, L.A.?, that it is impossible for the two ports to deal with the more than 16,000 port truck drivers on an individual basis. He told listeners that he wants accountability if the ports are going to spend nearly $2 billion to buy cleaner replacement trucks for the firms.
   'We are simply saying that we need somebody who gets a concession that will be responsible for seeing that all the trucks and truck drivers under their concession abide by our rules,' Freeman told host Warren Olney.
   'Our objective is to have a system where if somebody doesn’t abide by our rules that has a concession, then they have enough money that we can put pain on them so they will comply. We are business people,' he added.
   Freeman was more to the point at a closed-door meeting on the plan earlier the same day. According to attendees of a port-convened task force on the plan, Freeman warned them not to assume that any details of the plan, like the removal of the license limits, were final until the plan is formally approved.
   Despite the removal of the limits, he told attendees several times that he only wanted licenses to go to truck companies with 'deep pockets, so we can hurt them.'
   Industry insiders have said this is a backhanded move by the ports to achieve consolidation of the port trucking industry while appearing not to threaten small truck companies. Industry officials and port watchers speculate that instead of license limits, the ports will require high bond or insurance requirements on the license applications. This would have the same effect as limiting the number of license applicants, thus putting hundreds of small trucking firms at risk.
   A spokesperson for the Port of Los Angeles was unable to confirm Freeman's statements as cited by the task force members.
   To take effect, the truck plan must receive official approval by the two port commissions. Votes by the two boards have been delayed until the completion of a recently commissioned economic impact report on the plan. The report is scheduled to be completed by Sept. 1, with the boards most likely voting on the final version of the truck plan sometime in late-September or early October.