The locations vary, but the story is usually the same: Port cargo volumes increase, and terminal operators don't respond quickly enough with longer gate hours or productivity improvements. Long lines of trucks form at marine terminals. Independent drivers, who get paid by the trip, sit and fume as the delays cut their earnings by 50% or more.
When terminal congestion reaches a critical stage, drivers organize protests, stage noisy boycotts and talk about unionization. This chain of events, which has been played out this month in Vancouver, British Columbia, and the U.S. Pacific Northwest, has become familiar to many U.S. ports.
The job actions by harbor haulers that have crippled the Port of Vancouver since July 22, and spread to Seattle this week, are not isolated incidents. They reflect problems that have surfaced in recent years at ports as diverse as Los Angeles-Long Beach, Houston, New York-New Jersey, Charleston, S.C., Savannah, Ga., and Jacksonville, Fla.
"These problems always start at the marine terminal," said Greg Stefflre, a trucking company executive in Long Beach, Calif., and an attorney who serves as counsel to the American Trucking Associations. Since trucking deregulation in 1980, a cutthroat industry has evolved as trucking companies underbid each other for contracts with shipping lines. The companies contract with owner-operator drivers, keeping 20% to 30% of the money they are paid by shipping lines and passing the rest on to the drivers.
Organized labor rallies
At many ports, trucking rates have sunk so low that the owner-operators must work 10-to-12 hours a day to cover their expenses and make a profit. As working conditions deteriorate because of congestion at marine terminals, the independent drivers are increasingly open to organizing attempts by unions. The Teamsters union, in decline for years, has been taking an active interest.
"There is no question that container haulers are exploited," said Chuck Mack, president of Teamsters Joint Council No. 7 in Oakland, Calif. "Their job involves long hours, low pay and a lack of benefits. We could substantially improve the conditions under which they work."
In addition to congestion at marine terminals, drivers complain about their treatment from longshoremen. Drivers who hustle to complete three or four trips a day resent it when they are delayed at terminal gates and are verbally abused by high-paid longshoremen. "When you treat people as second-class citizens, they listen to the radical elements," said Tony Coppola Jr., vice president of CTI, which has operations in the Mid-Atlantic region.
But unionization of harbor truckers in U.S. ports has met with little success. Though there are isolated examples of unionized drivers at seaports, most trucking companies contract only with owner-operators. U.S. labor laws generally prohibit independent contractors from forming unions. Trucking executives believe unionization would ruin their industry by changing drivers' pay to hourly instead of by the trip. "There are no productivity incentives with union employees," Stefflre said.
Although the Teamsters are making inroads in Vancouver and Seattle, trucking problems at other seaports have not reached such a critical stage.
East Coast echoes
Even so, there have been periodic flare-ups around the country. The Port of Charleston also experienced problems last week as drivers protesting delays at marine terminals briefly delayed cargo handling. That job action was led by the United Container Movers Association, which represents independent truckers. In New York-New Jersey, there have been no protests, but the Sea-Land Service Inc. terminal is experiencing excessive congestion and drivers are getting anxious, said Dick Jones, executive director of the Bi-State Harbor Carriers Conference.
Sea-Land, which is being acquired by A.P. Moller-Maersk, has cut back on its gate hours, Jones said. "They claim they're saving $1.25 million a year," he said. Sea-Land said it is working to relieve the congestion. "The truckers do have some legitimate claims," said Clint Eisenhauer, a Sea-Land spokesman. "We are aggressively doing what we can." The congestion problems were caused by delays in choosing the carriers' Northeast hub, Sea-Land's pending acquisition by Maersk and the normal peak season cargo crunch, Eisenhauer said.
Trucking officials on the East Coast said they have been able to head off serious problems because groups such as the bi-state conference communicate regularly with shipping lines. "You sit down with them and review the good, the bad and the ugly," said CTI's Coppola.
Calm belies disgruntlement
Two port areas which in past years were hotbeds of organizing activities, Houston and Los Angeles-Long Beach, have been quiet recently. But that doesn't mean that all independent drivers are happy, said Joe Nievez, president of Qwikway Trucking in Los Angeles. Gate times in Los Angeles-Long Beach are still unacceptable, and terminal operators are not helping matters by delaying implementation of a port-wide electronic communication system known as Dispatch.
That system, which has been under development for more than two years, is designed to notify truckers about cargo availability, emergency conditions at terminals and other operational matters. "We need better communication, and this is the easiest, cheapest way to do do it," Nievez said.
Terminal operators say that although smoother gate operations would benefit everyone, shorter lines would not solve all of the trucking industry's problems. The capital investment required to establish a trucking company that uses owner-operators is minimal, and overcapacity has driven rates to rock bottom, said Edward A. DeNike, chief operating officer at Stevedoring Services of America.
"The industry is killing itself with its rates," he said.
But trucking executives say that if ports, shipping lines, terminal operators and shippers work with the trucking industry to improve productivity at marine terminals, the root cause of the industry's problems would be eliminated. "Across the country, I really don't believe drivers want to be unionized. They want to work efficiently," Stefflre said.
