The Intermodal Motor Carriers Conference (IMCC), in a letter sent to the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC), expressed its strong opposition to the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach clean truck program, which the ports predict will increase drayage rates by 80 percent.
This letter from IMCC, part of the American Trucking Associations (ATA), detailed concerns about both the destructive economic impacts and questionable legality of the program revealed in the ports' discussions and planning activities for implementing its Clean Air Action Plan (CAAP).
The IMCC said that if the ports approve and act to implement CAAP in its current form, the IMCC will seek corrective action in United States District Court and before the FMC.
The Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex is the largest in the United States. Currently, 1,300 motor carriers and 16,000 plus independent owner-operator drivers provide intermodal drayage services to these facilities, through which moves more than 40 percent of all containerized trade in the nation. Under the CAAP, motor carriers will have to apply for and be approved as licensed “concessionaires,” own their trucks, operate these trucks using only employee drivers, comply with a detailed truck retirement and retrofit program, and pay an assortment of “dirty truck” and application fees.
According to the ports' own economic impact study, implementation of the CAAP would greatly reduce port trucking competition, raise drayage rates by 80 percent, and force many small and medium-size motor carriers out of business.
