Trade Says Feds, Not Locals Should Regulate Harbor Trucking Industry Environment/Security Matters
On July 27, 2009, 32 associations1 representing importers, exporters, and the logistics industries and service providers that support them, sent a letter to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee urging it to reject efforts to re-write federal trucking rules codified in the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act (FAAAA) in order to exempt harbor drayage from federal preemption.
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Feds, Not Locals Should Regulate Harbor Drayage Environment/Security Matters
According to the associations, there is an effort is underway to persuade Congress to grant local governments the ability to regulate the harbor drayage industry to address environmental and port security matters, and thereby eliminate the federal pre-emption of state and local regulation of foreign and interstate commerce.
(The associations characterize the efforts to undermine federal preemption of interstate commerce as an attempt to overturn losses in the federal courts restricting local regulation of truck drayage services. They state that if such efforts are successful, they will not improve port air quality or security, but will instead re-impose a fragmented, local, patchwork regulatory structure on foreign and interstate commerce, contrary to the U.S. Constitution and acts of Congress.)
Impetus to Do Away with Federal Regulation Stems from LA Port Clean Truck Actions
According to the letter, the impetus for exempting port trucking services from federal preemption stems in part from the Port of Los Angeles' claim that local ports should be allowed to regulate interstate trucking services in order to improve air quality and port security in the aftermath of 9/11. However, the letter states that supporters of this special exemption are only seeking to change federal law in response to a series of unfavorable legal decisions restricting their authority over port drayage operations and to undermine ongoing litigation in this area2.
Ports seek to expand local role. The letter states that the Ports are now seeking to expand the exceptions to federal preemption legislatively to accomplish by statute an objective that the Courts found to be unlawful, noting that the Court of Appeals recognized that federal preemption of interstate trucking services was designed to prevent such a patchwork of burdensome state and local trucking rules as would be created by the Port of Los Angeles concession plan.
1Signatories to the letter are: American Apparel and Footwear Association, American Association of Exporters and Importers, American Import Shippers Association, California Dried Fruit Export Association, Consumer Electronics Association, Fashion Accessories Shippers Association, Foreign Trade Association, Harbor Truckers Sustainable Future LA/LB, International Association of Refrigerated Warehouses, International Refrigerated Transportation Association, International Warehouse Logistics Association, Los Angeles Customs Brokers and Freight Forwarders Association, NASSTRAC, National Association of Manufacturers, National Association of Waterfront Employers, National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America, National Home Furnishings Association, National Industrial Transportation League, National Pork Producers Council, National Retail Federation, Pacific Coast Council of Customs Brokers & Freight Forwarders Assns Inc., Retail Industry Leaders Association, Specialty Crop Trade Council, The Agriculture Transportation Coalition, The Health & Personal Care Logistics Conference, Inc., The Waterfront Coalition, Travel Goods Association, United States Council for International Business, U.S. Association of Importers of Textiles and Apparel, Western Home Furnishings Association, West State Alliance, Oakland, and World Shipping Council.
2In 2008, the American Trucking Associations filed suit against the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach claiming that the truck concession portion of the Clean Truck Program is preempted by federal law regulating rates, routes and service under the FAAAA. The courts determined that the ports' concession plans regulate interstate trucking "prices, routes, and services" and thus are unconstitutional and preempted by the FAAAA. The Ninth Circuit further found that the ban on independent drivers, among other concession rules, did not fall within an exception to preemption based on "motor vehicle safety."
Associations' letter (dated 07/27/09) available at https://www.apparelandfootwear.org/userfiles/file/letters/072709faaaaltr.pdf.