Post by HardTimeTrucker on Nov 15, 2008 0:01:38 GMT -5
Big Apple Cleans Up
11/14/2008
John Gallagher
Associate Editor
Officials at The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey say a clean truck program similar to the one recently started in Southern California is inevitable.
However, that doesn't mean an L.A.-style ban on owner-operators at the port is a given.
"There are a variety of different strategies depending on what part of the world you're attempting to deal with," said Christopher Ward, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, at a
Speaking on a panel sponsored by the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy, a liberal think tank, in New York last month, Ward noted that Los Angeles and Long Beach are divided over whether owner-operators should be allowed to work port terminals. "That's something that New York and New Jersey needs to be careful about, only because we perhaps have a higher number of independent truckers."
The Port of New York and New Jersey is the third largest container port in the nation, handling more than 5 million containers and 30 million tons of ocean cargo a year. Approximately 9,000 trucks serve the port authority's terminals in New Jersey and the New York City boroughs of Staten Island and Brooklyn.
Port interests in New York maintain safety should be a major reason for putting a clean truck plan in place.
"When I first got into the harbor business, it was a common saying that trucks went to the ports to die," said J. David Stein, executive director of Nation'sPort, an advocacy group for the Port of New York and New Jersey.
"Somehow that didn't seem to meet the test of what was proper and responsible. You don't want trucks on life support carrying 40 tons of sensitive goods on the freeways. It's not about who's right and wrong, but how to set up a system where you minimize a catastrophic failure. We should be doing everything in our power to minimize that."
