CLEAN TRUCKS * USA - Truckers Renew Quest to Expedite Clean Trucks Appeal

ATA cites “irreparable harm” to harbor truckers if expedited hearing not granted

Washington,DC,USA -The Journal of Commerce Online, by Bill Mongelluzzo -Nov 18, 2010: -- The American Trucking Associations petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit to move up by two months the hearing on the legality of the concession requirements in the Port of Los Angeles clean-truck case, citing irreparable harm to harbor truckers if an expedited hearing is not granted... ATA asked the 9th Circuit to push the schedule up two months: Opening brief, Dec. 28, 2009; answering briefs, Jan. 31, 2011; reply briefs with 14 days and oral arguments to begin in May 2011... Labor unions, by law, are prohibited from organizing independent contractors, such as the owner-operators that haul containers at most U.S. ports. By requiring motor carriers to hire drivers as direct employees, the Port of Los Angeles would, in effect, open the door to possible organizing of harbor truck drivers in Southern California... The port's timetable calls for 20 percent of the gate moves to be made by employee drivers beginning Dec. 31, 2011. Two years later, 100 percent of the gate moves would be by employee drivers... (Photo from t0.gstatic/Life -  Los Angeles.CAL: An inspector with the U.S. Customs department, watches a truck pull away from a Mobile Vacis unit after it was X-rayed)

* USA - Drayage Companies Evade Clean-Truck Requirements. Some use lighter Class 7 trucks to haul chassis, empty containers

Los Angeles,CAL,USA -The Journal of Commerce Online, by Bill Mongelluzzo -Nov 18, 2010: -- Some drayage companies in Southern California are violating the spirit, if not the letter of the Los Angeles and Long Beach clean-truck requirements, and the ports intend to end these practices soon... Thomas Jelenic, assistant director of environmental planning at the Port of Long Beach, said there has been a proliferation this past year of Class 7 trucks calling at the marine terminals... The ports' clean-truck programs requiring the phasing out of old, polluting trucks and replacing them with 2007-model or newer trucks applies to larger Class 8 tractor trailers. Therefore, older Class 7 trucks, which weigh 26,000 to 33,000 pounds, are operating legally in the harbor... One year ago, the ports' drayage truck registry recorded only 35 Class 7 trucks in the harbor. Now there are 500, and they account for about 2 percent of the gate moves at the ports, Jelenic told a dinner meeting of the Harbor Trucking Association Wednesday... The California Air Resources Board, which has a drayage truck rule for the entire state, is expected to take up the Class 7 issue when it meets on Dec. 16... (Photo: Class 7 two-axle tractor)