An independent organization representing port truckers in New York and New Jersey has spawned from the Bi-State Harbor Carriers Conference (BSHCC).
The Assoc. of Bi-State Motor Carriers (ABSMC) had been an executive committee of BSHCC, but will not be affiliated with the New Jersey Motor Truck Assoc. (NJMTA).
"There are some serious issues that need to be met if the New York and New Jersey ports want to compete with other East Coast ports," ABSMC spokesman Gordon Forsyth told Fleet Owner.
Forsyth said ABSMC was not formed directly because of the current situation with the West Coast ports, but acknowledged that the lockout there has caused a tremendous flow of cargo to the East Coast and has been a great burden to its port truckers.
The increase in cargo has caused port truckers to wait for up to six hours to get containers, Forsyth said.
ABSMC president Jeffrey Alan Bader noted that projects the group had pursued, in some cases, required legal action, taken successfully and entirely at BSHCC's expense.
"These actions, so important to our members and to the region's intermodal community as a whole, do not fit into the plans and objectives of the NJMTA," he said.
Bader said the group's focus would be to make the ports more user-friendly, productive and competitive, especially for intermodal truckers hauling containers both to and from those ports.
Richard Jones, the former executive director for the BSHCC, will assume the same role for Newark, NJ-based ABMSC. Sam Cunninghame, former executive director and past president of New Jersey Motor Truck Assoc., will be ABMSC's main lobbyist.