SAN FRANCISCO¡ªWhen the American Trucking Associations¡¯ (ATA) files its lawsuit today in Federal Court against the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, it will effectively put the controversial truck replacement programs in limbo.
¡°It¡¯s a blatant attempt to regulate the industry,¡± said Susan Ross, chair of the international trade practice for Los Angeles law firm Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp LLP.
She added that said such a lawsuit will likely result in an injunction blocking the program.
¡°If that happens, it puts everything on hold until the case is decided or the injunction is lifted,¡± she said, adding that the truck replacement program will
likely be ¡°delayed at least a year or maybe longer.¡±
Ross, who is not affiliated with the lawsuit but who has followed the port plan, said the group is saying that the ports cannot impose restrictions on motor
carriers that govern the routes, rates or services offered by the private companies.
This will hardly be the first time the ports have been thwarted in their attempts to move quickly on this proposal.
Earlier this year, the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) entertained the comments of the ATA¡¯s Intermodal Motor Carriers Conference (IMCC) as it asserted that the ports planned actions represented an effort to enlist their marine terminal operators as the day-to-day enforcers of an unlawful "concession" mechanism.
The conference particularly highlighted the Port of L.A.¡¯s expressed intent to adopt, as part of its clean truck program, a Teamsters-supported scheme to ban owner operator drivers from port transport service and require motor carriers to only use employee drivers.
In addition, the IMCC argued that the port imposed "concessionaire" contracting requirement amounted to a blockading provision at terminal gates preventing motor carriers from engaging in open access competition as intended under federal deregulation.
