Calif. truck battle moves from courts to Congress

Calif. truck battle moves from courts to Congress    A group of 32 shipper organizations, sent a letter to members of Congress on Monday opposing attempts by the Port of Los Angeles and others to rewrite federal trucking regulations to exempt harbor drayage from preemption under the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act. (FAAAA).
   “We urge you to reject efforts to rewrite longstanding federal trucking rules,” said the letter to James Oberstar, chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Transportation, which was signed by groups such as the American Association of Exporters and Importers, National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America, National Industrial Transportation League, and National Retail Federation.
   The letter is the latest salvo in a battle over provisions in the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach clean truck programs that require truckers to obtain concessions to serve the ports.
   In 2008 the American Trucking Associations filed suit against the two ports saying a truck concession portion of their programs is preempted by federal law regulating rates, routes and service under the FAAAA.
   The Los Angeles program included a provision banning any harbor trucking company from using independent owner-operator drivers in favor of employee drivers. The Port of Long Beach included the requirement for drayage operators to sign concession contracts with the port, but did not ban independent owner-operators from serving that port.
   The ATA request for a preliminary injunction was sustained in part by both the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Those courts determined that the ports’ concession plans regulate interstate trucking “prices, routes and services,” and thus are unconstitutional and preempted by the FAAAA.
   The letter said the ports “now seek to expand the exceptions to federal preemption legislatively to accomplish by statute an objective that the courts found to be unlawful,” and asks the legislators to “reject these efforts which would undermine the current efficient, competitive, and safe freight transportation system.”
   The letter was sent on the same day the Port of Long Beach issued a statement saying that 52 percent of the container cargo was trucked by 2007 or newer vehicles for the week ending July 21, meeting the 2012 deadline required under the Port of Long Beach’s Clean Trucks Program. It said the newer trucks emit 80 percent fewer air pollutants than older trucks. ' Chris Dupin