LOS ANGELES – The on- off-again provision banning owner-operators at the Port of L.A. is temporarily off again.

A federal judge granted a temporary injunction that blocks the Port from enforcing the employee-driver provision of the Clean Truck Program, which requires carriers working the ports to use only company drivers.

The LA Port’s position is that owner-operators will not be able to afford modern engines that are necessary for the port to reach the Clean Port targets.

The ruling will be in place until the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has a chance to hear an official appeal against the employee-driver mandate filed by the American Trucking Association.

The ATA, which accepts the part of the program that bans pre-1994 model year engines at the port, opposes to the Port’s authority to regulate the types of drivers working the port.

The judge stated that the Port was not able to show how its timetable for the employee requirement is unlikely to cause irreparable harm.

Carriers have until the end of 2011 to make 20 percent of gate moves by employee drivers. By the end of 2013, the number increases to 100 percent.

"The Port’s revised timetable is not measurably different than its initial timetable," said District Judge Christina Snyder.