L.A. port passes employee-only truck plan

L.A. port passes employee-only truck plan Port of Los Angeles Harbor Commissioners Thursday approved the final component of a drayage re-regulation plan that seeks to eliminate independent owner-operators from the local port-servicing truck industry.
   The result will see the creation of licensing system that requires a port-provided license to access port facilities. Licensed motor carriers must meet port-determined criteria regarding business operations and practices to be eligible for a license.
   The final component builds on earlier portions of the plan that were already approved, including a progressive multiyear ban on certain model-year trucks and a $35-per-TEU container fee to pay for the $2.2 billion plan.
   The Los Angeles port, in conjunction with the neighboring Long Beach port, jointly approved identical truck ban and container tax components late last year. Last month Long Beach adopted the licensing portion of its truck plan. Long Beach officials chose to allow trucking firms to determine which type of workers — hourly, per load, or a mix — they wish to hire. More than 80 percent of the drivers in the ports-servicing fleet are independent owner operators.
   The final portion approved by Los Angeles differs only slightly from that adopted by Long Beach, most notably in the employee-only language and in the types of container tax exemptions given to different vehicles.
   Full details of the Los Angeles plan are available at the port's Web site: www.portoflosangeles.org.
   Responding to the Los Angeles Board's approval, the American Trucking Association, long opposed to the employee-only mandate, was blunt.
   'By adopting a union-designed scheme that, in the name of cleaner air, bans independent owner-operator drivers from providing port transport service — even if they drive new clean trucks, L.A. port and city officials have now guaranteed that the next venue for the (truck) proposal will be in the courts.'
   The letter, from ATA Intermodal Motor Carriers Conference Executive Director Curtis Whalen, said the ATA will continue to work with Long Beach port officials to fashion 'a sensible and legal lean truck program.' It also said ATA considers the next move in regards to Los Angeles. Whalen ends the letter with, 'See you in court.' ' Keith Higginbotham