Truckers urged to stop work in L.A., Long Beach ports for one day
Truck drivers at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are being urged by anonymous leaflets to stop work for a day to protest new overnight shifts required under the new PierPass system, Reuters reported.
Unsigned leaflets being circulated at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach call for a “stop work meeting” on July 23, the day that port operators are scheduled to introduce the PierPass peak/off-peak differentiated pricing system.
Under PierPass, cargo leaving terminals in the two ports by road during peak hours will be charged a $40-per-TEU fee, while port operators will be encouraged to open terminal gates during off-peak hours, when no fee will apply.
The truck drivers are complaining that they will not get extra pay for working overnight shifts.
“If the truckers allow this to happen then all of the money will stay in the pockets of the brokers,” the leaflet reads, according to Reuters reports.
“There’s a lot of people who are concerned that there are going to be huge and massive disruptions,” Reuters quoted Robin Lanier, executive director of the Waterfront Coalition, as saying.
But there are concerns that surcharges from trucking companies could undermine the financial incentive under PierPass to operate port trucking during off-peak hours.
“That would be a very unfortunate response,” Lanier said.
