LOS ANGELES — Clayton Boyce, American Trucking Associations vice president of public affairs, criticized officials of the City of Los Angeles, the Port of Los Angeles and the Natural Resources Defense Council for misleading the public and press about the purpose and results of ATA’s lawsuit against the Concession Plans of the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

"These parties continue to mislead the citizens of Los Angeles and Long Beach by claiming that ATA is trying to kill the Ports’ Clean Truck Program," Boyce said.

"ATA has supported the Clean Truck Program, including the Ports container fee for financing the replacement of older trucks, the banning of older trucks and the Ports Drayage Registry, and continues to do so. ATA has opposed only the Ports’ Concession Plans, especially the Los Angeles ban on independent owner-operators."

Despite LA port officials’ best efforts to spin it so, ATA does
not oppose the Clean Trucks Program’s environmental aims.

The deception goes beyond public relations "spin" and may have two purposes, Boyce said: to lower public expectations for the Ports’ unsuccessful defense of the lawsuit; and to distract from the reason that Los Angeles, but not Long Beach, bowed to union influence and banned owner-operators. Requiring that drivers be trucking company employees will allow unions to organize the drivers. "In short, the public’s health, safety and security are not at risk in the ATA litigation," Boyce said.

"This litigation is about removing unconstitutional and illegal red tape, and about protecting the rights of the owners of small businesses that the Port of Los Angeles has trampled."

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth District ruled unanimously on March 20 that all or part of the Concession Plans are an unconstitutional interference in interstate trade. "The judges’ opinion made very clear that ATA does not oppose the environmental components of the Ports’ regulations.

The judges’ opinion also pointedly criticized the Port of Los Angeles’ owner-operator ban, which would rob thousands of small business owners of their livelihoods. Owner-operators are drivers who own or lease their own trucks. They are small business owners, and many small trucking businesses must contract with owner-operators to serve their customers," Boyce said.

The ATA legal challenge to the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles’ Concession Plans was never intended to affect the Ports’ environmental, safety or security programs.

"The Court of Appeals understands that the ATA lawsuit was not about blocking environmental, safety or security efforts, and the court noted that, says Boyce.

Last week, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) claimed the Court of Appeals decision "places in jeopardy the clean air goals at the ports, as well as every port infrastructure expansion project that relies on clean trucks."

Those claims and ones that are similar aren’t supported by the facts, Boyce points out. "These officials are not being intellectually honest but are manipulating public opinion."

— with files from Truckinginfo.com