Post by concernedcarrier on Oct 9, 2008 14:52:02 GMT -5
ATA Launches Ports Appeal
10/9/2008
Traffic World Staff
The nation's largest trucking group told a federal appeals court this week that a key part of the clean air plan at Southern California ports should be thrown out because it violates federal law by imposing economic regulation on truckers.
In its appeal of a federal judge's recent ruling supporting the plan, the American Trucking Associations said the requirement that truckers obtain concessions to operate at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach infringes on the federal pre-emption of state and local law in matters of interstate commerce.
The argument came in the opening brief the ATA filed this week with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in the ATA's case against the environmental plan the California ports started using Oct. 1.
U.S. District Judge Christina A. Snyder said in her ruling supporting the port plan that an exception to federal pre-emption allowing states to regulate motor carrier safety provided legal backing for the port managers to impose the requirement that drivers work for companies that have concessions to operate at the ports.
But ATA said in a statement that most of the requirements "do not affect safety and the few elements that do repeat the requirements of federal and state laws." The group said the plans "essentially re-regulate interstate trucking" and so "must be overturned even if some minor elements relate to truck safety."
