US independent truckers oppose re-introduced Clean Ports bill

THE American Trucking Associations (ATA), representing independent owner-operators, has condemned the re-introduced the Clean Ports Act, which stands to make the life of independent truckers more difficult if not impossible.


New York Democratic Congressman Jerrold Nadler has re-introduced the bill, after it slipped off the order paper with November mid-term elections. If passed, it would empower local port authorities and municipalities to enforce clean truck and environmental programmes outside federal law, which protects interstate commerce.


In California, there have been measures to ban owner-operator truckers from the waterfront ostensibly because they cannot keep up with the rising tide of unfunded environmental mandates. Such measures - now before the courts - are backed by environmentalists, the Teamsters union and have run into little opposition from big trucking companies, which stand to benefit from a ban on the independents that provide 70 per cent of harbour trucking.


ATA executive director Curtis Whalen told London's Containerisation International: "If it were passed, some mayors might think that they should also be free to dictate to trucks. A free market should dictate truckers. We are very much opposed to this bill, and think that it represents a bad idea."


The ATA is also fighting the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's (FMCSA) proposed regulations that would reduce the current 11-hour limit on driving in force since 2004 to 10 hours.


Mr Whalen, who is confident that the recently elected Republican-controlled Congress, has little taste for such legislation and noted that shipper associations also oppose such state intrusion on the grounds that it will only add costs and put a fragile economic recovery at risk.
(Source:http://www.schednet.com)