LONG BEACH, Calif. — Drayage companies in California should be able to hire independent owner-operators if they choose, contends the American Trucking Association.

According to the Long beach Press Telegram, the U.S.’s largest carrier group says it’s making good on its promise to sue the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, which have banned owner-operators as part of an effort to reduce pollution at the port.

A provision in the so-called Clean Trucks Program requires carrier companies working the port to use only employee drivers by 2013, this way the port authorities can better monitor fleet equipment for maintenance and pollution controls.

The ATA contends the rule violates interstate laws and creates a competitive disadvantage between large and small carriers.

Carriers insist the plan to eliminate independent
truckers from the port of LA violates federal laws

Over 80 percent of the 17,000 short-haul trucks operating at the twin ports are reportedly independents.

Starting this October, trucks built before 1989 will also be banned from the ports. By 2012, trucks will be required to meet 2007 EPA-mandated vehicle emissions standards.

"The concession mandate violates federal law by placing conditions on an industry that has been deregulated," the ATA’s Curtis Whalen told the paper.

That argument didn’t work so well in B.C., where the federal government allowed the Vancouver Port Authority to create a port licensing regime that sets rates that carriers must pay owner-ops.

While the rule helped calm months of labor unrest at the port, company fleets are still trying to convince officials that market conditions should drive compensation, not the government.