The clean truck programs at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have cut diesel pollution as intended, but also sharply reduced the number of drivers serving the harbor.
That didn’t matter much during the slowdown of the past few years. But now, as trade is picking up, trucking companies fear there won’t be enough drivers for the peak summer shipping season. The result could be bottlenecks of cargo at the port complex.
There were as many as 18,000 drivers in 2007 before old big rigs spewing black clouds of diesel exhaust were banned, requiring the purchase of brand-new clean-burning models costing $100,000 or more. There are now only about 11,000 drivers, most of whom own these expensive rigs.
“We could use some more owner-operators, but there aren’t any more because of the Clean Truck Program,” said Bob Curry, chief executive of California Cartage Co. in Long Beach.
Trucking companies say the major impediment is the cost of new trucks, which led many drivers to walk away from the industry, especially as the recession hit.
What’s more, a post-Sept. 11 federal security program that banned illegal immigrants and some ex-cons from the harbor is believed to have reduced driver numbers significantly.
The drop in drivers was almost welcome over the past few years because the amount of imported cargo dipped in 2008 and plunged in 2009. But container traffic began picking up in 2010. This year, companies think the number of cargo containers that pass through the ports during the peak July-through-October shipping season could exceed 5 million containers, which would approach the 2006 peak figure of 5.7 million.
The sudden demand for truckers has led to a growth in enrollments at area trucking schools, but the problem isn’t expected to resolve itself any time soon given a national shortage of drivers – and the still-high cost of buying new trucks.
“The barrier to entry is the cost of the trucks. When there were 18,000 trucks, anyone with a few thousand bucks could buy a truck and make some moves,” said Art Wong, a spokesman for the Port of Long Beach. “Clearly it’s tougher for people to enter this business.”
New model
Years ago, harbor trucking companies didn’t have a problem finding drivers.
Anyone with a Class A commercial driver’s license and an old big rig could find work. Drivers might earn just $100 or $200 per container, and haul only two or three containers a day. But they could also use the cheapest trucks on the market, often worth $10,000 or less.
When the ports mandated new trucks that cut down on diesel soot and other emissions, many truckers called it quits, saying they just eked out a living and didn’t see themselves making money by hauling the same $100 loads with $100,000 rigs.
Those who stayed in the business got grants that helped them afford new trucks and, in some cases, leased trucks directly from trucking companies that offered favorable rates or financial assistance. A few became employees of trucking companies. But with grant funding mostly gone, trucking companies say new owner-operators aren’t coming into the port market.
Vic La Rosa, chief executive of Rancho Dominguez trucking firm Total Transportation Services Inc., said his firm wants to add 20 to 30 drivers to its fleet of 200 independent owner-operators in Southern California. To find them, La Rosa and others will have to offer higher compensation.
To afford higher payments to drivers, trucking companies will need to charge major shipping companies more for each cargo container. Competition and the recession have pushed rates lower over the past several years, but La Rosa said a driver shortage could make it more difficult for shipping companies to get their goods delivered on time, making it possible to raise rates. It just won’t happen overnight.
“Until shipping companies feel the pain, we will not see the rate levels where they need to be,” said La Rosa. “The trucks have increased in cost quite a bit, and until we can get the return on that investment, we’ll hold the capacity down.”
Clean trucks aren’t the only reason the ports are short of drivers. Starting in 2009, drivers had to get a federal certificate – a Transportation Worker Identification Credential, or TWIC – to get access to the ports. The TWIC program blocked undocumented immigrants and some drivers with criminal records from working the harbor.
It’s not clear how many port truckers left the harbor because they were undocumented or had disqualifying criminal convictions, but a port-commissioned study in 2007 found that between 15 percent and 22 percent of drivers at the time – a number approaching 3,000 – wouldn’t qualify. Officials believe many drivers didn’t even bother to apply for the credential.
There are other factors, too. Under a 2010 federal safety program called Compliance, Safety and Accountability, or CSA, many otherwise qualified drivers have been pushed out of trucking because of poor driving records. The CSA program scores drivers’ safety records and uses them to judge the overall safety of trucking fleets, giving companies an incentive to hire safe drivers and shun bad ones both for marketing and insurance purposes.
Learning to drive
It also doesn’t help that truckers are older than the average worker and are retiring at a faster rate, according to industry studies. So as port trucking companies look to attract owner-operators, they’ve got competition. National trucking firms, which for years have said they don’t have enough drivers, are recruiting feverishly.
At Camino Real Schools in La Puente, Director Julie Chin said recruiters from FedEx, Swift Transportation Inc. and other national carriers visit her trucking school a few times each month to talk to drivers in training.
Rick Buchholz, California regional recruitment manager for Omaha, Neb., trucking company Werner Enterprises Inc., said such recruiting has become the norm only recently.
“Three years ago, there wasn’t but a handful of companies that had recruiters. Now, in the last 18 months, there’s recruiters everywhere,” he said. “It’s extremely competitive.”
That means qualified drivers can get hired as an employee fresh out of training. It might be on a long-haul route that keeps them on the road for days or weeks at a time, but it comes without the expense and risk of buying a truck.
That’s why Fred Johring, president of the Harbor Trucking Association, a trade group representing port trucking companies, is looking for ways to bring new blood into port drayage.
Johring said he and other harbor trucking leaders are talking to Long Beach City College and the Pacific Gateway Workforce Investment Board about creating a training and licensing program specifically for harbor truckers.
Discussions have only just begun and a program could be years away, but Johring said the idea is to not only help would-be drivers get their commercial licenses, but teach them about how shipping terminals operate and possibly the benefits of the owner-operator business model.
“When I look at Long Beach and the unemployment level in Long Beach, it would seem we could recruit people who want to stay local. That’s what I’m hoping to find,” he said.
