New legal wrinkle in Port of LA’s trucking program

Later this month, Port of Los Angeles staff will recommend to the Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners an adjusted schedule for implementation of certain provisions of the Port of Los Angeles Clean Truck Program Concession Agreement that were previously enjoined by the federal court.

Port staff will recommend approval of an adjustment of the dates for Licensed Motor Carrier (LMC) compliance with the employee driver requirement, job referral services requirement and the off-street parking requirement in order to provide time to develop compliance systems and provide LMCs “ample” time to begin compliance.

According to port spokesmen, this action is necessary because the judgment entered by Judge Christina Snyder may put the majority of the port’s concessionaires out of compliance with their concession agreements. These recommendations will likely be presented at the Board’s next meeting at 1 p.m. on September 27, 2010, and would only take effect upon Board approval.

“Now that we have won the case, the Port would like to implement the full Concession as soon as it is reasonably practicable, but adjust the schedule to allow both our Port staff and our motor carriers to prepare for compliance with some of the remaining program elements,” said Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Geraldine Knatz, Ph.D.

But the case has not necessarily been “won,” industry leaders point out:

“We would assume that the ninth circuit will have taken up the ATA appeal and issued a ruling prior to the 2011 implementation date,” said John McLaurin, President, Pacific Merchant Shipping Association (PMSA) in an interview.