L.A. port approves truck plan component, Long Beach to do same
The Port of Los Angeles' governing board approved the first portion of a contentious drayage overhaul plan Thursday, sweeping aside industry and government warnings about attempts to re-regulate the local port trucking industry.
The unanimous vote changed portions of the port's tariff — the governing bylaws of the port — to require terminal operators to ban certain model year trucks in three port-defined phases from Oct. 1, 2008 to Jan. 1, 2012.
Prior to the vote, officials from the neighboring Port of Long Beach committed to vote on identical changes to their own tariff on Monday.
The Los Angeles tariff changes require terminal operators to ban all pre-1989 model year trucks from entering port facilities starting Oct. 1, 2008. A second ban takes effect on Jan. 1, 2010 and bars entry to port facilities by all pre-2004 model year trucks. An exception is made during the second ban for 1993 to 2003 model year trucks retrofitted with port-defined emission control devices. A third ban will bar all pre-2007 model year trucks.
An additional amendment to the Los Angeles tariff requires all port-servicing trucks to be registered by June 30, 2008 with a port-maintained registry. In addition, owners must also maintain a radio frequency identification device on the vehicle. The new tariff rules also require terminal operators to install and maintain RFID readers at all facility entry points.
Prior to the vote, Los Angeles port Executive Director Geraldine Knatz clarified recent conflicts in the language between the two ports' planned tariff changes.
On Oct. 25, after several weeks of working with Long Beach to develop identical language for the two boards to vote on, Los Angeles officials made last-minute changes to the language of their proposed tariff changes. Made on the evening of Oct. 26, with no notification to Long Beach officials, the changes forced the Long Beach board to postpone an Oct. 29 vote on their tariff rules. Los Angeles officials initially characterized the last-minute, three-paragraph change to the tariff document as a 'typo,' later explaining to local media that the errant language resulted from Knatz being out of town and unable to oversee the release of the proposed tariff document before it was issued by staff.
Knatz also denied that that the change was ordered by Los Angeles City Hall, saying as soon as she returned to town and realized the document error on the morning of Oct. 26, she had the correction made. The amended document was finally uploaded over the older file on the Port of Los Angeles Web site at 4:40 p.m. on Friday evening. The amendment was not noted on the Web site or announced, and most Long Beach officials did not discover the changes until shortly before their scheduled Oct. 29 board meeting.
Despite the seeming about face by Los Angeles on the jointly developed tariff rules, Long Beach Harbor Commission President Mario Codero appeared at the Los Angeles board meeting on Thursday to say that the two ports will move in 'lock-step' on the truck plan. A revised tariff proposal posted to the Long Beach port's Web site on Thursday afternoon matched Los Angeles' newly approved language.
In addition to changing the 'typo' on Oct. 26, Los Angeles port officials further amended the tariff language voted on Thursday to include a future vote on the most contentious portions of the truck plan by Dec. 14.
The original $1.8 billion truck plan was introduced by the two ports in March, with a scheduled start date of Jan. 1, 2008. The complete truck plan, part of the ports' omnibus Clean Air Action Plan adopted last November, was set for votes by the port boards several times since the summer and pulled. The individual regulatory components of the CAAP have required each port to approve individual, but to date, identical language.
Under the original plan the ports were to determine who could and could not operate a truck in the ports by issuing operating licenses to port-area trucking firms. The licensing plan would use ports-defined criteria to only allow those trucking firms with 'deep pockets' access to Southern California port facilities, according to statements by port officials.
Through the use of a multiyear rolling ban introduced each Jan. 1 over the next five years, older trucks would be banned outright from operating in the ports. The plan was also supposed to set up a system to charge a terminal access fee to all pre-2007 model year trucks with port-licenses that have not been banned. These funds, in conjunction with port and taxpayer funds, would be used to provide funds to the same licensed trucking firms to replace or retrofit their truck fleets with 2007 or newer model year vehicles.
One of the most controversial portions of the original plan called for the licensing criteria to be used to mandate that all drivers be employees, thus eliminating all independent owner-operators working in the ports. The licensing and employee-only regulations have been the focus of much of the ire of more than 40 transportation organizations that have come out in opposition to the plan.
During Long Beach's abortive Oct. 29 meeting to vote on the new tariff rules, Harbor Commission President James Hankla responded to criticism that the ports have delayed too long on approving environmental plans and seemed to express frustration at the delays caused by the employee-only model as part of the truck plan.
'The adoption of the CAAP has been delayed specifically because it was tied up with an employee-only mandate,' he told the audience. 'I think that is what has delayed the CAAP to this point, by perhaps as much as six months. That is something that needs to be said, and I am delighted that I am the one who said it.'
Los Angeles port officials made it clear on Thursday that they plan to forge ahead with the employee mandate and licensing components of the plan.
“We’re not leaving the rest alone,” said Los Angeles Harbor Commission President S. David Freeman. “We’re just getting this done. We have the rest of the job left to do.”
The trucking, retail and shipping industries, while agreeing with the clean air components of the ports plan, have blasted the labor and licensing portions, arguing that the ports essentially do not have the authority to ban interstate commerce. The Federal Maritime Commission is examining the ports for violations of federal shipping laws regarding the plan, and the Maritime Administrative last week warned the ports to refocus on the antipollution aspects of the plan and shy away from the labor and licensing aspects.
The Intermodal Motor Carriers Conference, which has threatened litigation over the original plan, said that while the progressive truck bans approved by Los Angeles Thursday don't necessarily concern the group, the labor and licensing components still remain a concern.
'We have some issues with the overall plan, but we continue to work with the ports behind the scenes to avoid litigation and address those concerns,' said Curtis Whalen, executive director of the IMCC. 'However, if we are presented with a draconian regulation that does not address those concerns, we will have to look for relief in the courts.' ' Keith Higginbotham