LA/Long Beach Clean Trucks Program on track to start October 1st

Despite the pending ATA lawsuit appeal and questions from the FMC, the ports have announced that the program will start as scheduled on October 1st:

The Federal Maritime Commission on Friday asked a series of more than 100 complicated questions that will require detailed answers from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach about the $1.6 billion program, which aims to reduce diesel truck emissions by 80 percent within five years.

If the ports’ responses are unsatisfactory, the FMC could ask a federal judge to block the program from starting.

“To really get a good answer to those questions, we almost have to start the program,” Knatz said. “They’re just prodding us, but we’ll get the information out and work with them because we’re bound and determined to start on time.”

Just days before the FMC’s inquiry, a federal judge turned down the American Trucking Associations’ request to temporarily block the Clean Trucks Program from starting.

The trucking group is now seeking an appeal from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing that the ports are attempting to impose labor controls on the trucking industry, which was deregulated by the federal government in 1980.

This is my favorite line:

More than 200 trucking companies have applied for a concession contract with the Port of Los Angeles, and Knatz is confident that a sufficient number of drivers will be available by Oct. 1.

“You don’t generate the kind of response to our concession program with a business model that’s not up to snuff,” Knatz said.

Really? I guess it has nothing to do with the fact that your “business model” forces truckers to comply with your wishes or risk being completely locked out from doing business with you, not to mention gradually banning owner-operators. That’s some business model.