FMC approves SoCal ports truck plan waiver

FMC approves SoCal ports truck plan waiver The U.S. Federal Maritime Commission said Friday it would allow an agreement between the Southern California ports and West Coast marine terminal operators to move forward immediately, removing a key stumbling block to implementation of a ports drayage re-regulation plan.
   The ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles requested the antitrust waiver from the FMC earlier this year in order to allow port officials to discuss details of the $2.4 billion drayage re-regulation plan with their marine terminal tenants.
   FMC officials initially passed at allowing the waiver to move forward and instead demanded further information on specifics of the truck plan from the ports and terminal operators. The two groups returned answers to more than 50 FMC questions two weeks ago, and asked the federal agency for an expedited processing of the waiver.
   The FMC, in concluding their review of the Los Angeles-Long Beach Port-Terminal Operator Administration and Implementation Agreement (AIA), allowed the waiver to take effect June 13. The ports are facing key milestone dates regarding the truck plan within the next several months, and the possibility that the waiver would be delayed further could have threatened the entire timetable for the ports’ truck plan.
   The FMC, which is charged with blocking such waivers if they are deemed to result in increased transportation costs or loss of services, determined that because the AIA parties have “not yet agreed on implementation of any program referenced there under” in the waiver, there was “no basis at this time to determine that the AIA is likely to result in an unreasonable increase in transportation costs or decrease in transportation services.”
   However, the FMC noted that though they would allow the AIA waiver to move forward, the ports would be required to file additional details of the truck plan with the FMC. The federal agency also made it clear in its announcement that allowing the AIA to move forward did not preclude the FMC from taking action against the ports and the marine terminal operators if future action by any party is found to “contravene the Shipping Act of 1984.”
   “The shipping act directs the commission to evaluate the potential impacts of all agreements, both prior to their effectiveness and on an ongoing basis. Under these statutory requirements, further agreements reached pursuant to the AIA, and those related agreements of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, must be timely filed with the commission to allow for the competitive review and analysis required by Congress,” said Florence A. Carr, director of the FMC’s Bureau of Trade Analysis.
   “In addition, the commission evaluates individual or joint activities to prevent or redress any concerns with respect to statutorily prohibited acts enumerated in section 10 of the shipping act. Today’s decision letter has again emphasized to the parties the need to immediately file with the commission all substantive aspects of the clean truck programs.”
   The Southern California truck plan seeks to replace or retrofit nearly 17,000 diesel trucks servicing the two ports within the next five years. The $2.4 billion plan would remove certain trucks from the fleet with a rolling multiyear ban that progressively eliminates newer model year trucks. On Oct. 1, the first truck plan deadline will bar all pre-1989 trucks, nearly 3,000 vehicles, from entering the ports.
   Using a ports-imposed $35-per-TEU tax in conjunction with state and port money, port officials hope to subsidize the replacement or retrofitting of all 16,800 trucks within five years to meet 2007 model year United States Environmental Protection Agency emission standards. ' Keith Higginbotham