Differences between the clean trucks programs at the ports of Long Beach and L.A. may bring months of litigation, derailing clean air efforts at the nation's largest port complex.
The article contains an interview with Patty Senecal, who oversees California Governmental affairs for the International Warehouse Logistics Association (IWLA).
"Of the 800,000 for-hire trucks in the national trucking market, 400,000 are owner-operator contractor drivers. There is no legal authority for the Port of L.A. to impose an employee mandate on interstate commerce, thus costly litigation is likely to be triggered and capital improvements and clean air will be delayed."
"The structure of the steamship lines over the past ten years has changed. Consolidation and slot chartering among the steamship lines is now common. Containers' loads and empties are moving between both ports. It will create an operational nightmare to have restrictions on where trucks can and can't operate based on who is driving the truck. This will reduce the efficiency for cargo movement for terminal operators and truckers. This inefficiency will needlessly increase cost and pollution and reduce through-put of cargo."
"California goods movement logistics and transportation providers are learning that it is not just about diesel particulates anymore-environmental regulations are implementing the deal with climate changes and reducing the carbon footprint of goods movement. Our first response is to communicate with our importers and exporters that new regulations are in place from the state/ports and that freight transportation will cost more in the near future. As a baseline, we have to prepare for the CARB rules that take effect January 1, 2010."
