Port of Los Angeles moves ahead with new labor, environmental rules for trucking companies

Now that it’s won a key victory in federal court, the Port of Los Angeles is moving ahead with new labor and environmental rules for trucking companies that serve the harbor.

Trucking companies sign what are called "concession agreements"; in order to pick up and drop off cargo coming off of ships, truckers agree to follow certain rules. The Port of Los Angeles has tried to modify those rules as part of its Clean Trucks Program by requiring companies to replace older dirtier diesel trucks with newer ones. The trucking industry is fighting that and the port's rule that trucking companies hire drivers as employees, not contractors.

Late last month a federal court upheld the port's right to make labor and air pollution rules. Now the Port of Los Angeles has to figure out new deadlines for when the employment rules take effect.

Harbor commissioners for L.A. will consider a plan that would phase in the requirement over three years. In the first year, employee drivers would have to pick up 20 percent of gate cargo. By the third, no contract drivers could do that work. The harbor commission meets later this month.