Court reprieves LA owner-operator truckers - for now

A US federal judge has stopped the Port of Los Angeles implementing a ban on owner-operator truckers on the waterfront because they can`t keep up with the rising environmental costs imposed by port authorities.

While the larger issue is being heard before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, US District Court Judge Christina Snyder for the Central District of California issued an injunction to stop the port imposing the employee driver mandate in its "clean truck" programme - even though she ruled in the port`s favour in September, noted American Shipper.


The port has issued a timetable under which 20 per cent of motor carrier drivers must be employees by the end of 2011, 66 per cent by the end of 2012, and 100 per cent by the end of 2013.


Only bigger companies can operate at a level, and have the clout to control prices, to pay for the rising tide of unfunded mandates from state agencies.


Shippers fear a big increase in trucking costs, citing the Teamsters union support for the scheme, reports London`s Containerisation International. This would give the union the opportunity to extend its memberships and increase wages, and thus shipping costs.


Shippers also fear that if successfully implemented in California, the practice could spread to other US ports. Thus far, the port of Oakland has publicly supported the scheme while New York and New Jersey are considering it.


Ironically, last month Judge Snyder quashed a bid to say the port was illegally acting as a regulator of trucking, declaring instead that port was not usurping the federal role, but was acting as a proprietor or market participant.


American Trucking Associations intermodal chief Curtis Whalen, which sought the injunction, said he was pleased with the most recent ruling while the Teamster-backed Coalition for Clean & Safe Ports said Mr Whalen`s "attack prevents a legally sound environmental cleanup programme from fully moving forward."


Meanwhile some trucking companies have found a loophole in the clean truck programme by using Class 7 two-axle tractors to shuttle empty and light containers to and from marine terminals, skirting the clean truck rules that apply to heavier three-axle Class 8 tractors.


The California Air Resources Board (CARB), recently caught exaggerating the harm done by diesel pollution by 340 per cent, will meet in December to consider including Class 7 trucks in the programme.