In April the Los Angeles and Long Beach Harbor Commissions released the Clean Trucks Program, a plan to reduce port emissions by requiring trucking companies to meet new labor and environmental standards.  

A stable workforce of port drivers is critical to the success of the Clean Trucks Program.  The employee-based business model for trucking will promote greater port efficiency, lower emissions, increase security and create good jobs for drivers.

Employee driver business model promotes growth and productivity

• Increases truck productivity capacity.  By being able to run two shifts per truck with employee drivers instead of only one shift with independent owner-operators, companies will be able to raise the productivity of their equipment by maximizing the trucks hours of service.  
• More efficient dispatching and better use of night time gates with PIERPass. By being able to run two shifts per truck, companies will be able to more effectively use PIERPass and thereby reduce waiting times and congestion during peak hours.
• Will better accommodate GPS tracking equipment and other innovation technologies.  Because they would own their equipment, trucking companies could invest in a fleet-wide GPS and other on-board tracking and dispatching equipment which could produce efficiency gains.  A prime example of an employee-based company taking advantage of sophisticated tracking equipment is United Parcel Service.
• Will reduce costs associated with high driver turnover rates. With turnover rates estimated at over 100% annually, there are significant potential cost savings and productivity gains from trucking companies being able to lower driver turnover rates. For comparison, unionized truck companies have turnover rates between 3-5% annually.

Employee drivers will support reduced truck emissions

• The reduction in the total number of trucks resulting from increased productivity will reduce overall emissions. By increasing the hours of service for each truck and thereby raising equipment productivity, companies with employee drivers will need fewer trucks to haul the same number of containers as brokers using the independent owner-operator business model.  Emissions will be lowered by having fewer trucks on the road going to and from work.
• More efficient dispatching will reduce idling.  Employee drivers combined with gate fees and on-board truck technology will increase velocity of trucks through the gates at the port[1].

Employee drivers will improve safety

• Will make truck companies subject to California workplace safety rules. CalOSHA can investigate and enforce safety standards of an employee driver business model, whereas independent owner operators are outside of its jurisdiction[2].   Just last year a driver's death at the ports was not investigated because of his independent contractor status.  
• Companies will be accountable for proper truck maintenance. The employee driver business model will make truck companies responsible for ensuring their fleet are properly maintained.
• Employees less likely to engage in risky behavior.   Because truck companies have more flexibility in how they compensate employee drivers (hourly, by the mile, activity based, by the load, or a blend of these options) versus how independent owner-operators are compensated (overwhelmingly by the load), employee drivers are less likely to engage in risky behavior if they experience traffic congestion.

Employee drivers make workforce development programs possible

• Employee status requirement for receiving state and federal funds. In order to receive state or federal job training funds, job training programs are required to place trainees in jobs as employees.
• Employer participation requires employee business model.  In order for truck companies to participate in a CDL driver training program, they must hire drivers as employees.

Employee driver business model will reduce community impacts

• Can better establish dedicated truck routes.  Employee driver companies can better establish and enforce dedicated truck routes for their drivers because they can (1) more easily participate in port-specific CDL training programs which educate drivers on truck routes, and (2) better enforce adherence to truck routes than independent owner-operator companies.
• Companies can be more effectively required to have off-street parking to secure their trucks.  The employee driver business model would require truck companies to have their own off-street yard to park their trucks. Currently, most of the 1500 truck brokers which use independent owner-operators do not have their own yard to park trucks, primarily because the companies do not own any trucks.

1. Anne Goodchild, Assistant Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Washington is currently conducting a data-driven analysis that looks at this question. She has conducted a number of studies which look at port productivity, port operations and air quality.

2. Cal-OSHA lack of authority over independent contractors was reaffirmed in 1998 when Cal-OSHA Appeals Board ordered the agency to pay the attorneys fees of a business that Cal-OSHA cited erroneously because the Appeals Board found that the workers involved were independent contractors and not employees of the business involved.  See In the matter of the Petition for Costs of: Oasis Springs Corporation, 1998 WL 205333 (Case No. P95-2137-009) (February 18, 1998) at n.5.