FMC files for injunction against SoCal truck program

 The Federal Maritime Commission has filed for a preliminary injunction against portions of the Southern California ports truck re-regulation program.

   The commission filed Monday with the U.S. District Court in Washington D.C., which will hear arguments Dec. 5.

   The FMC is seeking to specifically block the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles from diving effect to or otherwise taking action to discuss, agree, implement, jointly or severally, any portion of the ports?truck program that requires the use of only employee truck drivers. The FMC also requested that the court block the establishment of ncentives, subsidies, or clean truck fees or exemptions from such fees?imposed on some but not all compliant trucks or trucking firms.

   The Port of Los Angeles in a statement Tuesday said the FMC, which is the nation's regulatory agency for oceanborne transportation and commerce, simply does not understand the issues.

   This action further demonstrates the FMC's fundamental misunderstanding of the ports Clean Trucks Program and underscores the inappropriateness of the FMC's attempts to intervene and block programs that are outside of its expertise or jurisdiction, the port statement said.

   The ports truck program, which began on Oct. 1, seeks to cut ports-generated diesel pollution by replacing more than 19,000 local drayage trucks with a newer fleet of 2007 or newer vehicles. To accomplish this the ports implemented a rolling ban on older model trucks and adopted an access-licensing scheme to determine who can and cannot enter the ports terminals. A third component of the program, as yet not implemented, would impose a $35-per-TEU container tax on each container drayed into and out of the ports terminals.

   While the two ports developed the plan jointly, the governing boards of each port adopted slightly differing criteria for trucking firms to obtain an access license.

   Last month, the FMC concluded that portions of the truck program violate the Shipping Act of 1984, specifically in regards to the potential for the program to raise the cost of transportation and create unfair business advantages for some trucking firms. The FMC chose to seek the injunction after attempts to get the ports to voluntarily change the violating portions of the truck program apparently failed.

   While six of the eight violations found by the FMC pertain only to the Port of Los Angeles version of the truck program, the injunction, if granted, would impact both ports.

   The Los Angeles port adopted a criteria requiring trucking firms to hire only per-hour employees instead of per-load independent owner-operators, while neighboring Long Beach made no restrictions on the trucking firms hiring practices. Nearly 90 percent of the Southern California drayage fleet is made up of owner-operators.

   Los Angeles port officials also offered financial incentives of up to $30,000 per truck to trucking firms that signed under the Los Angeles version of the access-licensing scheme. The Long Beach port did not offer similar incentives.

   However, the FMC motion for injunctive relief seeks to block any portion of the truck program that establishes ?clean truck fees. As a key component of the truck program that both ports adopted was the implementation of a $35-per-TEU container tax to pay for the program, if an injunction is granted, it would affect both ports versions of the truck program.

   The ports announced last week that collection of the container tax would be delayed indefinitely beyond the scheduled Nov. 17 start date due to technical issues and a need for more time to resolve the issues with the FMC and the local marine terminal operators.

Source:American Shipper