Post by B Gates on Jul 13, 2010 7:31:23 GMT -5
Port operations can improve without an act of Congress
By Kevin L. Dukesherer
Posted: 07/08/2010
Congressional aides are visiting Los Angeles this week as part of a House committee's ongoing review of the San Pedro Bay ports' clean truck programs. The two-day tour, however, has little to do with their clean air achievements. Its focus is the thousands of independent drivers who move cargo through the port complex.
At a May hearing, a House transportation subcommittee heard testimony that the Los Angeles and Long Beach clean truck programs have been wildly successful, reaching their goal of an 80 percent reduction in diesel truck emissions in just two years. Nearly 7,500 low-emission cargo trucks have been put into service, paid for with $700 million from private industry sources. Meanwhile, thousands of old, high-polluting trucks have been scrapped. The harbor is no longer where old trucks come to die.
Nonetheless, representatives of organized labor and the Port of Los Angeles appealed to the subcommittee to change federal law to allow seaports to re-regulate the harbor trucking industry. In order to preserve the environmental gains made through the clean truck programs, they claimed, ports must have vast authority to impose new regulations on port users, particularly motor carriers. The prize for Los Angeles is new power to ban independent truckers from the port and force them to become employees of a few large trucking companies, a gift to the Teamsters union, which is desperate to add port truckers to its shrinking private sector membership.
Harbor truckers deserve middle-class incomes. They operate equipment that costs at least $100,000 and as much as $160,000, and they should have business opportunities that enable them to cover their operating expenses. Regrettably, marine terminal operators who control access to container shipments have turned a deaf ear to the needs of drivers. Truckers are routinely made to wait three to four hours in mile-long lines to pick up a single cargo container, making it virtually impossible to deliver more than two containers during a shift.
Those who are truly interested in the well-being of port drivers, though, need not look to Washington. Changes can be made in the harbor complex quickly and with relative ease:
For starters, marine terminals must be open five nights a week. As much as 75 percent of the cargo imported through Los Angeles and Long Beach and delivered to customers along local freeways is moved at night, yet terminals are open just four nights a week. During holiday-shortened weeks like this one, terminals are open just three nights. Truckers must be able to work five days (or nights) every week. Full-time earnings require full-time work.
Terminals must remain open and operational for the duration of a shift, with continuous service between daytime and evening shifts. Adequate staffing must be provided to ensure that terminals deliver service during lunch periods and other break times. Doing so will add 20 hours of productivity every week.
Terminal operators should adopt appointment systems with pickup times spread across nine-hour shifts to ensure that service is delivered efficiently. Only drivers with appointments would receive service, with penalties for truckers who fail to arrive at their appointed time and terminal operators who fail to provide service within a mutually agreed-upon period. Terminals must further ensure that all truckers with appointments receive service, even those scheduled near the end of a shift. Terminal gates must not close until the last driver is served.
Monthly meetings among terminal managers and staff should be held during daytime hours when cargo moves are at their low point. These so-called stop-work meetings are currently held during busy evening hours, shutting down terminals another 12 nights a year.
A historic transformation is indeed under way in the harbor complex. Motor carriers are investing millions of dollars in new, clean trucks and making it possible for independent drivers to build their own small businesses. Air quality is dramatically improved. And the ports are safer and more secure than ever before.
The ports and their marine terminal tenants have the ability to change things for the better. As the economy improves and trade volumes increase, more cargo can be moved efficiently and the livelihoods of drivers can be improved greatly - all without an act of Congress.
Kevin Dukesherer is an owner of Progressive Transportation Services and a founding member of The Clean Truck Coalition. He is a San Pedro resident.
By Kevin L. Dukesherer
Posted: 07/08/2010
Congressional aides are visiting Los Angeles this week as part of a House committee's ongoing review of the San Pedro Bay ports' clean truck programs. The two-day tour, however, has little to do with their clean air achievements. Its focus is the thousands of independent drivers who move cargo through the port complex.
At a May hearing, a House transportation subcommittee heard testimony that the Los Angeles and Long Beach clean truck programs have been wildly successful, reaching their goal of an 80 percent reduction in diesel truck emissions in just two years. Nearly 7,500 low-emission cargo trucks have been put into service, paid for with $700 million from private industry sources. Meanwhile, thousands of old, high-polluting trucks have been scrapped. The harbor is no longer where old trucks come to die.
Nonetheless, representatives of organized labor and the Port of Los Angeles appealed to the subcommittee to change federal law to allow seaports to re-regulate the harbor trucking industry. In order to preserve the environmental gains made through the clean truck programs, they claimed, ports must have vast authority to impose new regulations on port users, particularly motor carriers. The prize for Los Angeles is new power to ban independent truckers from the port and force them to become employees of a few large trucking companies, a gift to the Teamsters union, which is desperate to add port truckers to its shrinking private sector membership.
Harbor truckers deserve middle-class incomes. They operate equipment that costs at least $100,000 and as much as $160,000, and they should have business opportunities that enable them to cover their operating expenses. Regrettably, marine terminal operators who control access to container shipments have turned a deaf ear to the needs of drivers. Truckers are routinely made to wait three to four hours in mile-long lines to pick up a single cargo container, making it virtually impossible to deliver more than two containers during a shift.
Those who are truly interested in the well-being of port drivers, though, need not look to Washington. Changes can be made in the harbor complex quickly and with relative ease:
For starters, marine terminals must be open five nights a week. As much as 75 percent of the cargo imported through Los Angeles and Long Beach and delivered to customers along local freeways is moved at night, yet terminals are open just four nights a week. During holiday-shortened weeks like this one, terminals are open just three nights. Truckers must be able to work five days (or nights) every week. Full-time earnings require full-time work.
Terminals must remain open and operational for the duration of a shift, with continuous service between daytime and evening shifts. Adequate staffing must be provided to ensure that terminals deliver service during lunch periods and other break times. Doing so will add 20 hours of productivity every week.
Terminal operators should adopt appointment systems with pickup times spread across nine-hour shifts to ensure that service is delivered efficiently. Only drivers with appointments would receive service, with penalties for truckers who fail to arrive at their appointed time and terminal operators who fail to provide service within a mutually agreed-upon period. Terminals must further ensure that all truckers with appointments receive service, even those scheduled near the end of a shift. Terminal gates must not close until the last driver is served.
Monthly meetings among terminal managers and staff should be held during daytime hours when cargo moves are at their low point. These so-called stop-work meetings are currently held during busy evening hours, shutting down terminals another 12 nights a year.
A historic transformation is indeed under way in the harbor complex. Motor carriers are investing millions of dollars in new, clean trucks and making it possible for independent drivers to build their own small businesses. Air quality is dramatically improved. And the ports are safer and more secure than ever before.
The ports and their marine terminal tenants have the ability to change things for the better. As the economy improves and trade volumes increase, more cargo can be moved efficiently and the livelihoods of drivers can be improved greatly - all without an act of Congress.
Kevin Dukesherer is an owner of Progressive Transportation Services and a founding member of The Clean Truck Coalition. He is a San Pedro resident.