A two-week strike by South Florida container haulers has ended, but dissatisfaction among drivers at the nation’s ports has not. The Teamsters union plans to continue efforts to organize harbor truckers, with more rallies at container ports across the country.
The protests already have had an impact: Shipping lines are paying higher rates to have their containers trucked to and from intermodal railyards and distribution warehouses. The increased charges, most of which should be passed on to drivers, are coming in the form of fuel surcharges or general rate increases by trucking companies.
Trucking companies’ promises to increase pay for drivers led to an end to the South Florida walkout, which virtually closed the Port of Miami and slowed traffic at nearby Port Everglades.
The strike collapsed over the weekend, after trucking firms agreed to meet individually with their drivers on pay and to offer increases reportedly averaging 10%. The individual meetings kept both sides from running afoul of federal antitrust laws against price-fixing.
Terminal operators at Miami stayed open during the weekend to start clearing the thousands of containers that accumulated at the port during the strike.
Bob Raitt, general manager of Port of Miami Terminal Operating Co. , said his company moved 326 trucks Saturday and 1,048 on Monday, when the terminal normally would have been closed for President’s Day. On a regular weekday, Raitt’s terminal handles about 800 trucks.
“It took two weeks to backlog us, and we’re hoping that if we can go at it full speed we can clear it in seven working days,” Raitt said.
Like their counterparts elsewhere, the Miami drivers were angry about rising fuel costs. But the main issue in Miami was insurance costs. Drivers sought the right to buy insurance on the open market instead of through trucking firms.
Trucking firms say they sell insurance in-house to standardize policies and guarantee premiums are paid. Drivers contend they could buy coverage cheaper if they could shop around.
While the insurance issue wasn’t resolved, a representative of Florida Insurance Commissioner Bill Nelson agreed to review the issue.
It will be some time before it is known whether drivers in Miami and other ports will be satisfied with the pay increases, or if they will push forward with efforts to unionize.
For the first time since the trucking industry was deregulated in the early 1980s, the Teamsters union is making a coordinated effort to organize harbor truckers on the East, Gulf and West coasts.
Past organizing efforts failed because the owner-operators could not prove they were direct employees instead of independent contractors, or because trucking companies temporarily raised their payments to drivers and took the steam out of the organizing efforts.
Most owner-operators who haul containers at U. S. seaports contract with trucking companies or brokers who pay them a flat per-trip fee.
That means that if the trucking companies can’t or won’t impose a fuel surcharge on the steamship lines that pay the bill, the increased fuel costs come directly out of the drivers’ profits.
The spike in diesel costs proved to be a galvanizing force for independent truckers at several ports, who participated in Teamster-sponsored rallies. The Miami strike apparently developed without Teamsters involvement.
Container lines have responded quickly by agreeing to pay higher trucking rates, or fuel surcharges, when approached by the trucking companies.
“We have worked out agreements with the trucking companies for fuel surcharges, retroactive to Feb.1,” said Tom Boyd, a spokesman for Maersk Sealand, which has developed surcharge formulas based on diesel prices in various regions.
“We understand the problems the truckers are facing,” said Michael Wilson, vice president for equipment at Columbus Line, adding the carrier is paying fuel surcharges on a request basis.
APL Ltd. has begun to pay fuel surcharges, and will review the surcharges every two weeks to ensure that they reflect current conditions, said spokesman Rick Ginley.
Shipping lines can also address increased fuel costs as part of general rate increases, as carriers are doing on westbound Pacific routes, or through surcharges, such as the 10% U. S. inland fuel surcharge that the Trans-Atlantic Conference Agreement has announced effective March 20.
Trucking companies are becoming more aggressive about approaching ocean carriers for increases.
“This is the time to bring rates up,” said Patty Senecal, vice president of sales at Transport Express in Los Angeles. “If we don’t pay the drivers more now, there will not be enough drivers for the peak season. This is not a trucking problem. It is an industry problem.”
Many owner-operators remain skeptical. They say the temporary increases and surcharges are inadequate and could be reduced when the threat of job actions subsides.
“My costs have increased 50% to 60%,” said Tony Fernandez, an owner-operator in Jacksonville. “They’re offering a 4% increase. That’s a slap in the face.”
Teamsters organizers are capitalizing on those sentiments. “We’ve seen surcharges in the past, and they were discontinued when fuel was no longer an issue,” said Steve Williamson, staff director of Teamsters Local 174 in Seattle.
“They will make adjustments on a short-term basis, but unless the holes in the dikes are all over the place, they won’t really do anything,” Williamson said.
Shipping executives say it is unfair to blame ocean carriers for an industry problem that involves ports, terminal operators, railroads, trucking companies and shippers as well as shipping lines. They cite congestion at marine terminals, equipment shortages and vehicular gridlock on the nation’s roads as a clear lesson that operational changes are needed throughout the intermodal network.
“There are probably 10 ports,10 physical locations that are the lifeblood of the U. S. economy,” said Ed Kelly, chief operating officer at Cho Yang America. If container volume doubles over the coming decade as projected, importers and exporters in the top 10 gateways will have to keep their doors open 24 hours a day, trucking companies will have to operate round the clock, and marine terminals and steamship lines will have to do the same, Kelly said
