At a rally outside the offices of the Port of Los Angeles last Friday, Miguel Lopez, representing the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, stated that truck drivers would be tempted to break federal hours-of-service rules which prohibit truckers from driving more than 10 hours straight.  The lure of working more hours in order to make more money would likely lead to exhausted drivers and traffic accidents, he warned.  A spokesman for PierPASS, disagreeing with Mr. Lopez and calling his  claims false and “misguided”, added that, “Nobody is being forced to do anything”.

 

On May 19^th though, the Long Beach Press Telegram saw things differently.  Eric Johnson reported that, “… smaller retailers who don’t already operate warehouses at night could be forced to do so, or pay $ 80 per container to receive them during the day”.    According to LA economist Jack Kyser, roughly 70 percent of the cargo coming through the local ports is owned by  such small-and medium-sized businesses, many of them lacking the economic clout to operate at night,   “The concern is that this will be another cost burden for small businesses”, he said.

 

Bruce Wargo, the general manager of the non-profit organization administering the PierPass program seemed unconcerned, however, when he stated that, “The real purpose of PierPASS is to introduce this institutional change.  It isn’t going to work for everyone and it may change their current business model”.  [Right.  “Nobody is being forced to do anything.”]

 

Stephanie Williams, VP of the California Trucking Association, in a wise choice of words, said, “You can’t compel the owner-operators to work in the middle of the night if they’re getting paid the same.  You’re talking about people with families and kids.” [“Nobody is being forced to do anything.”]

 

“If our drivers don’t want to work nights, we can’t make them work nights,” said Patty Senecal, VP of Transport Express. [It’s unanimous.  “Nobody is being forced to do anything.”]

 

Richard Coyle, President of Devine Intermodal, a trucking firm based in Sacramento, offered his objection with this comment, “Trying to induce the trucking industry into a nighttime operation by way of a penalty is wrong”.  Shippers, he said, could end up paying more to trucking firms who need to cover the cost of nighttime operations and also reward drivers for working these unpopular shifts.  “We have some sizable clients that are going to resist that vehemently”, he added..” [It’s monotonous.  “Nobody is being forced to do anything.”]

 

Mr. Coyle had stated, “I do believe that this labor pool has been exploited too long,” and he also said that he hoped to attract drivers by offering them most of the $ 50 fee he plans to charge clients for each load moved during off-peak hours.  Mr. Wargo objected, however, by warning that if trucking companies impose such nighttime surcharges, shippers might lose the incentive (?) to move cargo at nonpeak hours. [Right.  It’s O.K for PierPass to mandate fees/fines, but no one else should.] “If nobody decides they want to work evenings, then we’re going to have an issue of how to provide for the future in this port complex,” Mr. Wargo said.  [Isn’t PierPass supposed to be the panacea?]