Court Rules Harbor Truckers Are Independents

The Journal of Commerce Online - News Story
Ruling against Calif. in civil case shores up ATA position 

A Los Angeles Superior Court decision this week confirmed that motor carriers are correct in classifying harbor truck drivers as independent contractors rather than direct employees.
Although the case was not initiated as a defense of federal preemption powers involving harbor trucking under the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act, the American Trucking Associations views the decision as supporting its efforts to prevent the Port of Los Angeles from requiring the use of employee drivers under its clean-truck plan.

Thursday's ruling by Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Allen White involves a civil action filed by Calif. Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown against Pac Anchor Transportation. The attorney general charged that the motor carrier had improperly classified drivers as independent contractors.

The Teamsters union and other labor organizations that seek to organize harbor truck drivers have attempted for years to get the courts and federal agencies to classify owner-operator drivers as company employees. Unions, by law, can not organize independent contractors, but they can attempt to organize companies with direct employees.

Judge White found that the attorney general's actions threatened to erect entry controls that would discourage independent contractor drivers from working in the harbor.

The ATA, in its challenge last year to the Port of Los Angeles clean-truck plan, cited the FAAAA as prohibiting state and local entities from actions that regulate the rates, routes and services of motor carriers. A U.S. District Court judge in Los Angeles this summer issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting the port from enforcing a provision in its clean-truck plan requiring that motor carriers hire drivers as direct employees.

Curtis Whalen, executive director of the ATA's Intermodal Conference, said Judge White's ruling this week confirms that the FAAAA is a strong and comprehensive law when it is applied to harbor trucking.