NY-NJ Port to Release Clean-Truck Plan - The Journal of Commerce Online - News Story

 Posted - Mar 3, 2010 1:49PM GMT- Bill Mongelluzzo- The Journal of Commerce Online - News Story

No employee-driver mandate expected for East Coast hub

The battle over control of harbor trucking will head east next week when the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey releases its clean-truck plan.
Although the mayors of New York and Newark have gone on record in support of a program based on the Port of Los Angeles model that calls for licensed motor carriers with employee drivers, the East Coast's largest container port does not appear to be headed in that direction.
The New York-New Jersey clean-truck plan will not include an employee-driver mandate, said Curtis Whalen, executive director of the Intermodal Motor Carriers Conference of the American Trucking Associations.
It is undeniable that the movement toward establishment of clean-truck programs, which began two years ago in Southern California, is spreading to other U.S. ports, Whalen told the 10th annual Trans-Pacific Maritime Conference in Long Beach.
However, it does not appear that other ports will adopt the "command and control" model that Los Angeles has been attempting to implement, Whalen said. That model calls for phasing owner-operators out of harbor service and replacing them with employee drivers that can then be organized by the Teamsters, he said.....

http://www.joc.com/maritime/ny-nj-port-release-clean-truck-plan