National Security

Recent reports have identified a “gaping hole” in security at the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports. It’s the chaotic port trucking system that would easily allow a terrorist to pose as a driver and gain access to highly sensitive port facilities. To prevent that, we must overhaul the failing port trucking system.

A Hole in Security Big Enough to Drive a Truck Through

The local port trucking market is fragmented between more than 600 firms—many of them flyby-night outfits—that provide extremely low pay to drivers. The companies wrongly classify more than 80% of drivers as independent contractors, forcing them to cover operating costs out of their own pocket. This broken system has potentially catastrophic consequences for port security.

• High Turnover & High Risks: Low pay leads to driver turnover estimated at more than 100% a year; those astronomic turnover rates make it impossible to do adequate background checks.
• Unknown Quantity: Unlike longshoremen or other port workers, no one entity has clear responsibility for port drivers. The port commissions have no direct relationship with this vital sector and cannot even determine how many truckers work at the Ports.
• Potential Disaster: The ports are considered prime terrorist targets. A recent study concluded that a terrorist attack involving a 10-kiloton nuclear bomb smuggled into the Long Beach port would kill 60,000 people instantly and cause $1 trillion in economic losses, at least 10 times the financial impact of the September 11th attacks.

Bringing Accountability to Port Trucking

It is time for the ports to establish a direct relationship with the trucking companies and ensure only responsible, security-conscious firms do business. The ports must stop low-road companies from turning drivers into poorly paid and short-tenured independent contractors. This new port trucking system will:

• Increase Employer Accountability: By ending the fiction that drivers are independent contractors, companies will have to take more responsibility for the truckers they hire.
• Reduce Driver Turnover: Under the current system pay is so low that “many drivers could make more money flipping hamburgers.” Turnover rates will drop when drivers can no longer be exploited as independent contractors.
• Ease Transition to New Security Standards: Homeland security officials hope to create a new ID card for all port workers, a daunting prospect for the largely immigrant port drivers. Many trucking experts fear drivers will leave the already undermanned industry rather than attempt to comply. If the drivers were full employees and had companies and unions helping them navigate the system, they’d have a much better chance of success.