N.Y.-N.J. draymen dispute trucking study

N.Y.-N.J. draymen dispute trucking study    An organization representing truckers that operate in and around the Port of New York and New Jersey questioned the conclusions of a Rutgers University study released earlier this week that claimed the industry’s dependence on independent contractors and older trucks means New Jersey’s logistics industry is “externalizing many of its costs on the public.”
   Matt Stanton, a spokesman for the Association of Bi-State Motor Carriers, questioned whether sufficient numbers of truckers had been interviewed by the researchers, and suggested the authors wide-ranging conclusions about issues from truck emissions to the industry’s efficiency were “a stretch.” The study was based on a random sample of 299 of an estimated 7,000 port draymen.
   He said the report’s estimates that pay for draymen averages less than $10 per hour for independent contractors and $12 per hour for employee drivers were “on the low side.” He also said that some companies pay independent contractors for waiting time at terminals, when the study said they were not.
   “Now is not the time to be increasing the cost of entering the port, to talk about increasing the cost of moving containers,” he said.
   He suggested that help from Washington in the form of incentives may be needed if trucks in the port are to be replaced with more modern, cleaner equipment.
   Last month, New York congressman Jerrold Nadler in a guest column in the New York Daily News called on the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, along with New York Gov. Paterson and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg to push for new regulations that would require the trucking industry to absorb the total labor and environmental costs of doing business in our region.
   Nadler said, “The trucking industry should no longer be allowed to get away with forcing truck drivers and taxpayers to shoulder this burden.”
   The report by David Bensman, professor of labor studies and employment relations at the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations, and Yael Bromberg, a student at Rutgers School of Law-Newark, said among the costs of moving freight that are being passed onto the public health care costs to drivers and the general public from diesel pollution, the costs of traffic congestion and traffic accidents on
the main freight routes.”
   They also claim “low pay and independent contractor status impede the efficiency of New Jersey's logistics system.”
   The report is available here. ' Chris Dupin