The supreme court has ruled on the Port of LA case. Unanimously they decided that the Port did not have the right to force Truck Owner Operators to become employees (which might mean joining a union). The ATA won their case. However, the story is not over.
Supply Chain Digest
We are facing another round of environmental upgrades at ports, in the case of the San Pedro Basin to 95% emissions reduced. Up to now the best technology reduced PM10 by 85%. And we can expect more capital expense and support needed to upgrade. Owner-Operators will not be able to pay. So the port will need to offer some kind of help.
In addition, other ports will be instituting similar rules around who can enter a port and serve it for cargo. for instance now there are federal statutes kicking in which could limit access to safe drivers, measured by their federal safety records. A driver may also have to be up to date on logs and on safety checks, which are being captured electronically soon. I’m sure there will be legal challenges to specific rules imposed. We’ll see what policy issues these raise.
Supply Chain and Logistics 