Blog Post from American Trucking Associations

Business as Usual: Clean truck programs haven't hindered Ports

January 22, 2010

The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach ban on diesel trucks built before 2003 kicked off this month, and it was pretty much a non-event, the Long Beach Press-Telegram reported.

The newspaper said that just 3 old trucks were turned away on Day 1, while 400 clean, new trucks rolled in at the Port of Long Beach with hardly a whiff of emissions. The scene was similar at the Port of Los Angeles. Business continued as usual.

Many were surprised that most of the cleanup already had been accomplished - 80 percent of diesel emissions had been eliminated, and 90 percent of the trucks serving the ports meet the new, stringent clean-air standards, the Press-Telegram said.

This environmental progress belies claims by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters that the ports cannot attain environmental goals unless owner-operators are banned and all drayage drivers are required to work for trucking firms. To sell their scheme as a port cleanup program, the Teamsters assembled a hodgepodge of groups, including the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Sierra Club, to mislead the public about their goal. Former Long Beach Harbor Commission President James Hankla said that the environmental community made a devil's bargain with the Teamsters and "come hell or high water, they are going to defend that position."

The Port of Long Beach never adopted the Teamsters' plan to ban owner-operators and has not been hindered in cleaning the air. Despite the environmental success at Long Beach, the Teamsters, environmental groups and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a former union organizer, are campaigning to require not only the Port of Los Angeles but distribution centers and ports nationwide to ban owner-operators and allow only employee drivers, which would enable the Teamsters to organize them, reported the Press-Telegram. The Teamsters want federal transportation law changed to allow state, county and municipal governments to regulate interstate trucking, which is now illegal.

The Press-Telegram article concludes by pointing out a recent editorial in The Wall Street Journal that said unionization would give the Teamsters enormous bargaining leverage over work rules and pay, sharply raising the cost of moving goods, as well as the power to shut down ports in a strike. According to The Journal, the response of trade groups would be to divert cargo to Mexico or Canada.