In The News

OOIDA says NY, NJ Port Authority should fix efficiency problems

Every time Paul Yurkovac hears environmentalists or union leaders calling for port bans on owner-operators, he wants to set them straight.

Yurkovac – who is an OOIDA member and works full time as public relations/project coordinator for the Owner Operators Coalition of Virginia – said anyone blaming owner-operators for port diesel emissions is missing the point.

“People who aren’t familiar with port operations – it’s easy for them to point their finger at anyone driving an older truck,” Yurkovac told Land Line . “They’re not the source of the problem; they’re a result of the problem.”

The ports at Hampton Roads, VA, where Yurkovac worked until recently as a drayage driver, are among several East Coast ports that have heard rumblings of L.A./Long Beach style environmental regulations.

The Coalition for Healthy Ports and the Clean Air Task Force reportedly held a press conference recently calling for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to approve a ban on independent owner-operators at the ports similar to one implemented by the Port of Los Angeles.

The Star-Ledger , a Newark newspaper,reported that the environmental and labor groups blame truck idling at the ports by owner operators.

Port leaders could easily cut idling pollution by improving efficiencies such as chassis maintenance, Yurkovac said.

“If you’re starving because you can only make it to the port two times a day – cutting wait times by half could allow you to double your income and have the money to retrofit your truck,” Yurkovac said. “If they fix the inefficiencies of the port, and drivers could get off the port in say half the time, more profits would go to owner-operators, which inevitably will lead to equipment upgrades as they’re necessary. But you can’t look at owner-operators who are forced to deal with these inefficiencies and turn around and blame them for having to wait to load or unload.”

Joe Rajkovacz, OOIDA regulatory affairs specialist, worked with Port of Los Angeles officials to develop a recently approved day-pass system, which allows long-haulers that make occasional port visits to make up to 24 visits annually. Right now, only the Port of Los Angeles has approved the day-pass system. However, if the Port of Long Beach approves a day-pass system, truckers will have the 24 day-passes total to use between the two ports.

“To take the issue of the economics surrounding port drayage and just simply lay it off as a problem with the status of drivers being an employee or an owner-operator is simplistic, to say the least,” Rajkovacz said. “The problems are more systemic than they are the issue of the driver’s status. All of the problems that complicate an owner-operator’s profitability are still going to be present – even if they are employee drivers. So you must get to the root causes that complicate a driver’s life.

“Simply attacking the driver’s status doesn’t do it,” Rajkovacz said.

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