A national public policy research center is taking issue with port trucking, saying it abuses the environment in the name of competition. Demos, the group that released the report, said that while deregulation helped encourage competition by driving down freight rates, competition has also led ports to shirk environmental responsibility. The recommendations of the report include: improving air quality for public health by establishing stricter emissions standards and protect the driver public by enforcing highway standards.

Port Trucking Garners Lackluster Grades in Report

A policy research center study recommends clamping down on misclassification of port truckers as independent contractors.

Demos, a national public policy research center, published “Port Trucking Down the Low Road: A Sad Story of Deregulation,” by David Bensman. A professor of Labor Studies and Employer Relations at Rutgers University, Bensman chronicles events for port truckers since the Federal Motor Carrier Act of 1980.

Deregulation has achieved some of its goals of increasing competition and driving down freight rates, he wrote, but “ports compete for business by abdicating responsibility for air quality, chassis and container safety, and labor standards.”

His recommendations include:
• Improve quality of trucking jobs by cracking down on employer abuse of misclassifying port truckers as independent contractors to avoid compliance with employment laws.
• Improve air quality and reduce public health hazards and associated costs by establishing stricter federal diesel emission standards.
• Protect the driving public by enforcing highway safety standards, including weight restrictions and the new 2008 chassis standards for container trucks.

The report is available at www.demos-usa.org.

[source - etrucker.com]