Feds Join Clean Trucks Suit, Say Ports Have Gone T

[HardTimeTrucker]

Feds Join Clean Trucks Suit, Say Ports Have Gone Too Far



By George Cunningham



The U.S. Federal Government has jumped into the American Trucking Associations' lawsuit against the Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach concession plans, siding with the ATA argument that the ports are preempted from regulating port drayage. The government's amicus curiae brief, filed in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal, says that District Court Judge Christina Snyder erred when she denied the ATA's request for a preliminary injunction and found that the ports were probably exempt from the preemption argument because the concessions dealt with safety.



The federal brief notes that the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act explicitly preempts state regulation related to price, route or service of any motor carrier. Since the concession agreements directly relate to routes and services, they fall within the preemptive scope, the brief says.

Congress delegated implementation of the FAAAA to the U.S. Department of Transportation, it said. "The District Court ignored the plain language of the statute and Supreme Court precedent by concluding that this exception extended beyond motor vehicle safety to more generalized public safety concerns."



The federal brief claims the district court failed to examine each requirement of the concession agreement, some of which are plainly unconnected with safety generally, let alone with motor vehicle safety. Among such requirements is the Port of Los Angeles mandate that trucking companies servicing the port use only employee-drivers, eliminating all contract owner-operators over the next five years.



The concession agreements also include requirements for parking plans, maintenance programs, record-keeping, placards informing the public where to call to complain about emissions or safety, company financial information, and information on the qualification of drivers.



The brief asks the appellate court to hold that the concession agreements "fall within the FAAAA's preemptive scope," that the safety exceptions are confined to motor vehicle safety regulations, and that other aspects to the concession agreements are not related to motor vehicle safety and are preempted by the federal government.