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S. Calif. Truck Plan * USA - Major industry groups ask FMC to investigate
Two major shipping and freight industry groups have asked the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission to take immediate action against a controversial port trucking re-regulation plan being proposed by Southern California port authoritiesCAL,USA -American Shipper+ Shippers' NewsWire -27 Sept 2007: -- ... In what may be the first public salvo of industry action against the $1.8 billion truck plan, the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association and the National Industrial Transportation League have asked FMC officials to examine the ports’ plan for what the groups describe as “legal, logistical and anticompetitive impacts that will cause immediate economic harm”... In the 14-page letter to the federal agency requesting the review, the two groups also detail their assertions that the ports, during development of the truck plan, have violated portions of the federal Shipping Act... The ports’ Clean Truck Program, slated to start Jan. 1, would ban access to the ports’ terminals by truckers not obtaining a license from the ports... Port-licensed pre-2007 model year trucks would pay a “truck impact fee” for each gate entry at the terminals... The ports claim that the plan, if fully implemented, would eliminate up to 45 percent of port-generated truck emissions by 2012. Trucking firms must also agree to hire only employees, not independent owner-operators, to obtain a port license... In their letter, the PMSA and NIT League point out that the ports’ agreement with the FMC “is entirely silent on one of the most intrusive and anticompetitive portions of the Clean Truck Program -- the prohibition of independent owner-operators”... John Husing, a prominent Southern California economist, said that truck driver positions, support jobs and back office staff would all suffer under the ports’ truck plan. Husing’s analysis, which was presented to port officials several weeks ago, found that 376 trucking companies would vanish if the ports’ plan was implemented, along with just over 2,250 back office and support jobs. A calculation using numbers in the analysis suggests that at least 4,400 driver positions would be eliminated by the ports’ plan. An American Shipper analysis of the plan in July found that 6,150 driver positions would be lost because of the plan, along with close to 1,500 support positions... In addition, Husing told the audience that implementation of the program will likely result in more than a 50 percent short-term reduction in the port truck fleet, an 80 percent increase in shipping costs for surviving firms and “a slowly building crisis as lack of drivers and trucks means containers are not delivered on time"... (Picture from www.alwaysbeta.com - Los Angeles air pollution)
Labels: Clean Truck Program debate
posted by Unknown @ 7:24 AM
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