Where’s the Enforcement of These Trucks?
Posted on Jan 22, 2008 - 6:19pm by Wayne Weisser in Trucking
And I’m not talking about Mexican trucks. Why aren’t the teamsters, PATT and even OOIDA standing up and complaining against these trucks?
Unsafe trucks stream out of L.A.’s ports
Pushed by thin profit margins, many drivers rely on shadowy fix-it men or skip repairs as they elude inspectors.
By Louis Sahagun, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
January 21, 2008
Miguel had more reason than usual to be anxious as he drove his aging big rig out of the Port of Los Angeles’ bustling China Shipping Terminal. By his own admission, his 24-year-old truck was dangerously overloaded. The suspension was shot, the tires nearly bald. Over his CB radio, other drivers barked warnings that the California Highway Patrol had set up several checkpoints nearby.“I’m worried,” said Miguel, a 47-year-old independent operator who requested anonymity to avoid trouble with the law. “If I get inspected, I could get put out of business,” he said, easing into traffic while scanning for the CHP. “Something real bad could happen at any moment on the road. I’m doing the best I can. It’s a vicious cycle.”
It’s also a way of life for many of the about 16,000 truckers who serve the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports, the nation’s busiest port complex. The truckers reflect the extraordinary rise in port traffic in the last decade and are key to what government officials and businesses hope will be continued growth in the future.
These aren’t Mexican trucks, they are US trucks registered in California. If you’ve ever driven the 710 near Long Beach, you’ll see two solid lanes full of containers going to and from the ports. And you’ll be able to tell what great shape they’re in too. A lot of duct tape and bungee cords holding fenders on. Any time you hear about a wreck on the 710 you can bet it’s one or more of these trucks involved.
You think if CHP was really serious about enforcement they couldn’t put these kinds of drivers out of business? They need to set up their checkpoints outside the gates of the ports.
Cheap Imports have to remain cheap.
The problem is the American people are used to buying cheap crap from China. If these drivers were forced to maintain their equipment the right way, they wouldn’t be able to haul cheap out of these ports. Rates and prices would have to rise. But since the port is going to be shut down and be moved to Mexico, it really doesn’t matter.
I delivered some store fixtures to a warehouse near the border in a new industrial complex where some of the roads weren’t even finished and only a few buildings had been built. I was talking to the owner and he was saying how that area is going to explode with border trade soon because they are building ships too big to fit through the Panama Canal. I wasn’t sure what that had to do with the El Paso area, but as soon as he said that, it started making sense why Mexico was building a superport, because it’s going to be cheaper to drop stuff off on the west coast and truck it east rather than shipping it around the Cape like in the old days before the Panama Canal.
More enforcement here at home
Something needs to be done about the short haul trucks coming out of these ports. Just because they don’t go cross country doesn’t mean they should be allowed to drive on the LA freeway system. Since most of these trucks are short haul, they don’t have logbooks. But since he figures he’s up a creek if he gets stopped because of his truck you think he would be worried about a logbook?
Further in the story, the driver mentions about how if he doesn’t haul it, someone else will. If all the drivers competed on the same level and had to keep their equipment up the same way, that wouldn’t be an issue.
Check out the rest of the article and the video, then come back and tell me what you think about it.
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The truck issue is being dealt with by CARB. If you read this post you’ll see that the older trucks won’t be plying their trade much longer. Personally, I don’t think this was the best way to handle the situation, enforcing current laws would be better, but by going this route they’ll effectively create a method by which transportation rates can be increased to cover the cost of updating trucks, paying port fees, etc.
As far as the Mexican ports, you can read this post that addresses the Super Corridor that’ll be served by Mexican ports.
I’m not surprised that the L.A. Times ran an article highlighting the problems at this particular time; there’s been a lot of discussion regarding the new regulations and their impact on the drivers currently making their living driving junk. The L.A. Times has been a big supporter of the new regulations so I’m sure they’ll want to do all they can to sway public opinion their way.
It’s been the same for grain haulers in the Midwest for years - there has been junk on the roads for as long as I’ve been trucking. The cheap haulers here may be a step above what the LAT depicted, but they sure are close.
Carb is only for California, I’m sure every other port in the country is the same. I’ve seen the trucks going in and out of Tacoma and they are just as bad.
Anywhere I’ve ever been around ports or rail operations, you’re going to see junk. I’ve always wondered how they get by with it. Most stay local and the local authorities look the other way. I’m guessing the authorities look at those trucks and figure that they can’t get blood out of a turnip.
What’s really bad is I would guess that there is a much greater chance of an accident in the crowded metro areas where they are operating than out on the open highway.
Usually it’s not shady repairman getting these guys either. If one breaks down, all of their buddies stop to help with the duct tape and bailing wire. There’s no investment in a luxury like a mechanic doing road service.
How often do you think these guys get drug tested? If they do, I’m sure they know it’s coming and prepare for it.
If they force these trucks out of business at the ports, I’m sure they’ll be able to find plenty of work in and out of the railyards. From my experience wth the Chicago railyards, I see very little difference except for the nationality of the drivers and the tire regroovers. The trucks are junk, many of the drivers are Eastern European and I would question both their legal status and their CDLs.
Since most of the freight is short-haul, these trucks and drivers never get out where they have to risk a weigh station-or enforcement. But I was gratified to see, one day last spring, Illinois DOT working a major enforcement effort at the Centerpoint Intermodal Hub (the old Joliet Arsenal property). Since there’s only one way into the complex, at least eleven Dot cars were out there, with creepers on the side of the road, putting a huge bunch of them out of service. The major tenants at Centerpoint are paper companies and big box retailers-they have to know they’re shipping freight cheaply just because of these illegal rigs/drivers.
People will do what they have to do to survive-but every one of these guys endangers public safety and lowers the wages of the rest of us.Who’s at fault? I’d say the big Fortune 500 companies who utilize these poor saps-usually thru a 2nd or 3rd party logistics company. There have got to be some high-priced lobbyists in the mix somewhere. So, where IS CRASH and PATT?
The regulations enacted by CARB and the Ports of L.A. and Long Beach affect only California…for now. I imagine that other ports will soon follow. But don’t minimize the impact just the Port of L.A. and Long Beach have. 40% of ALL containerized freight moving into the U.S. currently goes through their gates. The equivalent of nearly 30,000 20′ containers per day (which is actually something more than 15,000 and less than 20,000 actual moves).
Additionally, I’m not so sure you can simply lump every port onto the same pallet. Speaking as a driver who has actually been employed shagging containers out of a port I can assure you that not all ports are serviced by “junk trucks”.
The trucks we drove, as well as those of every other company contracted, were well manned and maintained. The operations, speaking only of the company for which I worked, were the most professional I’ve encountered over the last 29 years.
As far as any other regulations were concerned; although we weren’t required to keep a formal log, we were required to conform to all the regs; including HOS. If, for example, we worked a long day our morning start time might be delayed to ensure that a minimum of 10 hours off-duty between shifts was maintained. We were also randomly drug tested and, no, we didn’t “know it’s coming and prepare for it” as Mark assumes. (Based on what facts, I wonder?)
Are there problems at ports and railheads? Absolutely and I’m not trying to minimize them. But I think it’s a mistake to draw sweeping conclusions based on limited observational experience and a single article in the L.A. Times. It’s an interesting subject for discussion but it seems there’s a huge difference between what most people “know for sure” and what they’re assuming with few or no hard facts.
And don’t get me wrong, just because I’ve worked at one port I’m not setting myself up as any kind of expert, either. I’m just indicating that each port and railhead needs to be addressed individually. I happen to see increased traffic in and out of these facilities as having high potential for the creation of good short-haul jobs. It’ll take some effort, to be sure, but the potential is there and, judging from the response Tim’s Life After the Open Road got, it seems as though a lot of drivers would be happy to have a good job that allowed them to live a more normal life.
The only fact I know is that when I haul rail containers on a flatbed out of a rail yard in Columbus, Ohio there are are stoned drivers there. I know when someone is high by looking at their actions and their eyes. It doesn’t take a trained pro to know when someone is high. I went to high school and that’s pretty much the only experience I need to know someone is stoned. Then again maybe their allergies were getting to their eyes, they forgot lunch so they were raiding a candy machine for 3 candy bars at one shot, and they were just easily amused.
If those guys are getting tested and passing, something is up.
as was stated each pick up point needs to be judged by it self when I did containers we had to depend on the rail yard to get us a frame an you really had to check them out some I would not even hook.Bad tires lights no flaps an if you left the fines where on you. you blew a tire you bought a tire no money back. No one said anything about this until something went bad. You could get deep into debit on a short trip that way.so how could you pay for a new truck if you had to buy the company tires. I here thing have changed but I wont go back.