Dateline: New York/New Jersey

Port Authority Truck Ban Drives Truckers Out of Industry

January 1, 2011

For more than a decade Kirby Reyes’ livelihood as a port truck driver has depended on his 1991 Peterbuilt truck. But under an important but deeply flawed environmental Port Authority rule, drivers like Kirby, who studies show average $28,700 a year, face unemployment or massive debt starting January 1st. The new rule banning big rigs built before 1994 from port property requires these low-income truck drivers to purchase expensive low-emissions vehicles, subsidized by taxpayers, in order to keep their jobs.

“We all want to drive clean trucks, but the Port Authority should make the shipping and trucking companies foot the bill, not individual workers like me,” said Kirby Reyes, a single-father living in the Bronx. “This ends my career as a port truck driver because I can’t afford a new loan for a $120,000 truck and still put food on the table for my 11-year-old daughter.”

After a decade behind the wheel, Kirby is ineligible for unemployment benefits because the trucking company he works for calls him an independent contractor instead of an employee.