Court Denies Expedited Hearing on Clean Trucks

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit denied a request by the American Trucking Associations for an expedited hearing of its appeal in the Port of Los Angeles clean-truck case, all but assuring the case will remain in legal limbo deep into next year.

Unless the 9th Circuit changes its ruling, the hearing involving the Port of Los Angeles concession requirements, including a mandate that harbor trucking companies begin to phase employee drivers into their fleets, will not take place until the late spring or summer of 2011.

Meanwhile, a preliminary injunction issued by U.S. District Court Judge Christina A. Snyder prohibiting the port from enforcing the employee-driver concession requirement will remain in effect until the 9th Circuit hears the case and issues its ruling later in the year.

Judge Snyder last month ruled certain concession requirements in the port’s clean-truck program most likely violate federal preemption law which prohibits state and local entities from regulating motor carriers engaged in interstate commerce.

However, in a victory for the port, she sided with Los Angeles in its argument that the port competes with other ports for cargo and therefore falls under and exception to federal preemption law as a market participant.

On appeal, Judge Snyder confirmed her ruling, but granted ATA’s request for an injunction prohibiting the port from enforcing the employee-driver mandate until the 9th Circuit hears the case. The port had published an implementation schedule in which harbor trucking companies by Dec. 31, 2011, would have to begin hiring employee drivers, and must have 100 percent employee drivers within two years.

Labor and environmental interests strongly favor the employee-driver mandate, which would allow unions to organize the drivers. Most drivers now are classified as independent contractors, and unions, by law, can only organize companies with direct employees.

If approved in Los Angeles, the employee-driver mandate could spread to ports in other labor-friendly cities such as Oakland, Seattle, New York and Newark, which are on record supporting the Los Angeles plan.

ATA, with the support of the port, had asked the 9th Circuit to require that the parties file their briefs in late December this year so the case could be heard two months earlier than the appellate court had docketed.