Post by HardTimeTrucker on Oct 26, 2009 21:38:46 GMT -5
Trucking Group Warns NY/NJ on Clean-Truck Plan
Joseph Bonney
Oct 26, 2009
The Journal of Commerce
ATA exec Curtis Whalen tells port industry it’s not good marketing
An American Trucking Associations executive said New York and New Jersey politicians will regret endorsing Los Angeles-style clean-truck regulations that he said represent a thinly disguised effort to encourage driver unionization.
“Why in God’s name would you get yourself involved with Los Angeles on an issue that has clearly been misrepresented as an environmental and safety issue?” Curtis Whalen, executive director of the ATA’s Intermodal Motor Carriers Conference, said at the annual New York-New Jersey Port Industry Day.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Newark Mayor Cory Booker said this month that they support a clean-truck program modeled after the controversial one in Los Angeles, where the port wants to ban owner-operators and require the use of employee drivers. The mayors also said they support an amendment to the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act to grant port authorities regulatory authority over harbor trucking.
The ATA has challenged the Los Angeles plans in court, and Whalen noted that they are widely unpopular among nearly all segments of the transportation industry except the Teamsters Union, which hopes to organize employee drivers. Whalen said endorsing similar requirements for New York-New Jersey doesn’t strike him as “a particularly good marketing strategy.”
He said efforts to pre-empt federal authority over trucking represent “an assault on the system and nobody, except for a select few on the outside, would benefit.”
Tom Adamski, chief executive of Cross Port Transport, told the Port Industry Day audience that the port is served by about 15,000 local trucks and perhaps 10,000 vehicles from other states, but that only about 500 are pre-1994 models that emit the most pollution.
Contact Joseph Bonney at jbonney@joc.com.
Joseph Bonney
Oct 26, 2009
The Journal of Commerce
ATA exec Curtis Whalen tells port industry it’s not good marketing
An American Trucking Associations executive said New York and New Jersey politicians will regret endorsing Los Angeles-style clean-truck regulations that he said represent a thinly disguised effort to encourage driver unionization.
“Why in God’s name would you get yourself involved with Los Angeles on an issue that has clearly been misrepresented as an environmental and safety issue?” Curtis Whalen, executive director of the ATA’s Intermodal Motor Carriers Conference, said at the annual New York-New Jersey Port Industry Day.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Newark Mayor Cory Booker said this month that they support a clean-truck program modeled after the controversial one in Los Angeles, where the port wants to ban owner-operators and require the use of employee drivers. The mayors also said they support an amendment to the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act to grant port authorities regulatory authority over harbor trucking.
The ATA has challenged the Los Angeles plans in court, and Whalen noted that they are widely unpopular among nearly all segments of the transportation industry except the Teamsters Union, which hopes to organize employee drivers. Whalen said endorsing similar requirements for New York-New Jersey doesn’t strike him as “a particularly good marketing strategy.”
He said efforts to pre-empt federal authority over trucking represent “an assault on the system and nobody, except for a select few on the outside, would benefit.”
Tom Adamski, chief executive of Cross Port Transport, told the Port Industry Day audience that the port is served by about 15,000 local trucks and perhaps 10,000 vehicles from other states, but that only about 500 are pre-1994 models that emit the most pollution.
Contact Joseph Bonney at jbonney@joc.com.