Letter says New York, Newark steering wrong way

Letter says New York, Newark steering wrong way    A group of 29 organizations representing shippers, carriers and logistics companies have asked New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Newark Mayor Cory Booker to reconsider their support for the Port of Los Angeles' Clean Truck Program and efforts to change the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act (FAAAA) so that local governments can impose new trucking regulations.
   “We fully support efforts by the ports, including the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, to improve their air quality. However, there is absolutely no need for a change to longstanding federal law to achieve this goal, nor any justification on outlawing independent owner-operator trucking firms from serving our nation's ports,” the groups write in a letter dated Wednesday.
   “The argument that port trucking services should be exempted from federal preemption in order to improve air quality is fallacious, and has nothing to do with clean air,” the letter said. A provision in the Los Angeles program to ban independent owner-operators in favor of employee drivers is “designed to eliminate competition from small independent businesses in favor of companies that the Teamsters believe could be more easily organized.”
   “It is time for us to work together in the common objective of improving air quality at our nation's ports, and to stop this poorly disguised effort to put law-abiding independent owner operators of clean trucks out of business,” said the letter.
   Groups signing the bill include the Agriculture Transportation Coalition, American Apparel & Footwear Association, American Association of Exporters and Importers, American Import Shippers Association, American Trucking Associations, Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America, International Warehouse Logistics Association, NASSTRAC Inc., National Association of Waterfront Employers, National Industrial Transportation League, National Retail Federation, New Jersey Motor Truck Association, New Jersey Retail Merchants Association, New York State Motor Truck Association, New York Shipping Association, Retail Council of New York State, Retail Industry Leaders Association, Transportation Intermediaries Association, U.S. Association of Importers of Textiles and Apparel, U.S. Council for International Business, Waterfront Coalition and World Shipping Council.