California Ports trying to get trucking companies to hire independent drivers

California Ports are trying to encourage trucking companies to hire independent drivers as a way to cut pollution, but the trucking companies say they cannot afford it. As reported in Inside Bay Area:

At the Port of Oakland, as well as ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach, a cornerstone of that effort entails persuading trucking companies to hire drivers — rather than continue to use them as independent contractors. Port officials, as well as several community and environmental groups, say this plan will cut pollution because trucking companies can afford to run cleaner trucks than the independent drivers can.

The trucking companies, however, say they cannot shoulder the additional economic burdens of hiring drivers and acquiring trucks. Nevertheless, trucking companies are being pushed to embrace some measures to improve drivers’ conditions and help reduce pollution. More than 50 percent of the truck drivers who serve California ports earn no more than $30,000 a year after expenses, according to a report by the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy and the Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports. On such wages, drivers cannot buy and maintain the most fuel-efficient rigs, the organizations argue.

Port of Oakland officials presented a proposal to its board June 7 that would encourage trucking companies to hire drivers and assume ownership and maintenance of hauling equipment. Such a plan would reduce pollution from poorly maintained old trucks and employers would provide better wages for the drivers, officials said…

New trucks can cost upward of $120,000. Used ones cost what the market will bear, depending, like automobiles, on make, year and condition. Mohammed Asif bought his last truck used in 2006 for $6,000. But Vereket Waldegorgis, another independent, spent $20,000 for his second-hand equipment. Several trucking company owners, such as Jerry Phillips of IMPACT Transload and Rail, based in Richmond, said drivers want to remain independent.

But this belief does not jibe with the petition 1,250 of the port’s 1,500 drivers signed, saying they would prefer to be employed by trucking companies. The Teamsters union and community action group Change to Win, which organized the petition drive, presented the document to the port Board of Commissioners in July.

The Port of Oakland has been waiting to implement its clean truck program until officials see how similar plans work at the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles… Meanwhile, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters — which has tried for years to unionize port drivers — awaits the day when independent contractors will become employees. Chuck Mack, director of ports for the Teamsters union, said, “We’re comfortable we’re going to change the model in Oakland and Los Angeles-Long Beach.”