Media Coverage

Congressional Hearing on Clean Port Trucks
Jersey City Independent, May 4^th, 2010 

Ports of Contention
Roll Call, May 5^th, 2010

Plan for Ports Program
La Opinion, May 6^th, 2010

LA Port Official Pushed for Federal Fix to Clean Truck Program
E&E Daily, May 6^th, 2010

Congress to Scrutinize Harbor Truck Leasing
Journal of Commerce, May 6^th, 2010

Leasing Abuses at Ports Must be Addressed
Land Line Magazine, May 6^th, 2010

CA Ports’ Truck Lease-to-Own Deal Merit Investigation
Transport Topics, May 11^th, 2010

Truckers, anxious to meet Jan. 1 deadline for retrofits, take protest to Oakland City Hall
by Cecily Burt, Oakland Tribune, December 15, 2009

Smog rules will cost 1,000 truckers' jobs
by Eric Young, San Francisco Business Times, December 11-17, 2009

Follow That Story:  New Report Says Port Trucking Causing Public Health Crisis,
by Jon Whiten, the New Jersey City Independent, December 9, 2009

In the East Bay, where pollution goes, health problems follow,
by Sandy Kleffman and Suzanne Bohan, Contra Costa Times, December 6, 2009

Truckers scrambling after grant money dries up
By Cecily Burt
Oakland Tribune, November 3^rd, 2009
Starting Jan. 1, all diesel drayage trucks serving the Port of Oakland — from 2,000 to 3,000 — must comply with strict air quality regulations enacted by the state Air Resources Board. Trucks with engines manufactured before 1994 are banned.

When Blue Meets Green
By Ethan Goffman
The Environmental Magazine, November 2009
Perhaps it began in Seattle in 1999, with the epic “Teamsters and Turtles” alliance to protest a meeting of the World Trade Organization. Unions and environmentalists, at the time seen as an unlikely pairing, united against a version of globalization that, they argued, spurs a “race to the bottom,” encouraging corporations to undercut both worker rights and environmental standards.

Cleaner-Trucks Mandate Will Create Hardships at Port of Oakland
By Frances Dinkelspiel
New York Times, Bay Area Edition, October 30^th, 2009
“This is straight-out slavery, only modern,” said Mr. Zerfiel, 49, a native of Eritrea. “The companies tell you to keep your mouth shut, take what they give you, and don’t say anything because if you say anything there’s always another guy who can do it.”

Driving Toward Clean Air at Our Nation’s Ports
By Peter Lehner and Carl Pope
Huffington Post, October 28^th, 2009
"Cancer alley."  That's what many Southern Californians call the 23-mile rail and truck corridor connecting our nation's largest seaport to massive distribution centers east of Downtown Los Angeles.  In California alone, diesel air pollution from ships, trucks and trains kills more than 3,700 people every year -- more than died in the 9-11 attacks.

Clean Trucks: One Year Later
by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa
Huffington Post, October 1^st, 2009
As Congress and world leaders continue to grapple with solutions to address climate change, cities across the United States are endeavoring to find workable solutions to address their specific air pollution challenges.

State falls in health coverage
by Amy Nutt
The Star-Ledger, September 23^rd, 2009
Truck driver Ralph Prestol is 51 and is in constant pain from arthritis, a herniated disk in his neck and 31 years of hard driving, hauling cargo to and from Jersey City’s piers. A former driver for Linden Bulk, Prestol has had no health care since 2003 when he was terminated by the company after missing two months of work due to an operation.

A new crop of eco-warriors take to their own streets
by Margot Roosevelt
Los Angeles Times, September 2009
Along the I-710 corridor, where cargo-carrying trucks and trains spew diesel pollution around the clock, grass-roots groups are persuading residents to act and making clean air a priority.

Stuck on the Low Road
by Dr. David Bensman
The American Prospect, September 21^st, 2009
American ports and the logistics and distribution systems they feed are old world. Trucks clog the overwhelmed highways and roads leading to the ports. Thick diesel pollution fouls the air not only in the ports and neighboring communities but in inland warehouse districts under siege from container trucks and freight trains. Stacks of containers form walls around residential communities. Traffic congestion slows commuting time and wastes fuel. Rates of asthma as well as lung and heart disease are climbing.

Truck drivers face a hard road in weak economy
by Kristopher Hanson
Long Beach Press-Telegram, August 23^rd, 2009
A severe downturn in trade since late 2007 coupled with stringent environmental regulations requiring drivers and companies to purchase new, “clean” rigs have trimmed driver incomes to new lows, according to interviews with several local drivers. One driver, Rafael Rivera, said the past year has been the worst in his nine years hauling containers in and out of Long Beach and Los Angeles waterfront marine terminals.

Port Drivers and Advocates Push for Trucking Reform
by Martin Bricketto
Jersey City Independent, August 6^th, 2009
Ralph has been driving trucks for 31 years, including 11 years handling shipments from the busy ports in northern New Jersey. It’s those decades of experience that allow him to clearly sum up the plight of today’s port truckers. “We need help,” Ralph says. “This industry has really changed; it has only gotten worse.”

On The Waterfront: The Struggle for Sustainable Port Trucking
By Michelle Chen
In These Times, August 6^th, 2009
America’s teeming harbors are the lifeblood of global commerce. But for the truck drivers who keep the shipping industry flowing, and the communities living downwind, the bustling ports emit a peculiar kind of poison.

Cleaning & greening the ports
by Marilyn Bechtel
People’s Weekly World, August 3^rd, 2009
No matter which coast they’re on, the nation’s ports, the truck drivers who convey most goods to and from port terminals, and the surrounding communities are suffering the same problems: congested traffic leading to inefficient transfer of goods, rampant pollution-related illness, and working conditions binding drivers in an unrelenting cycle of poverty.

Port groups look to Congress for guidance as legal battle stalls
by Robin Bravender
Greenwire, July 24^th, 2009
Advocacy coalitions in major port cities on the East and West coasts are pressing Congress to give local officials clear authority to ramp up regulations to curb air pollution from old, dirty diesel trucks.

Labor, environmentalists fighting trucking deregulation
By Kristopher Hanson
Long Beach Press Telegram, May 4^th, 2009
Labor leaders and environmentalists are reportedly gearing up for a renewed lobbying effort in Washington to end or amend the nation's 29-year experiment with trucking deregulation.

Environmentalists Seek Ban on Owner-Operated Diesel Trucks at NJ Port
by Brian Murray
The Star-Ledger, April 10^th, 2009
The independent trucker is an American icon, glorified 30 years ago in B-movies like "Smokey and the Bandit" as the modern cowboy making a living on his own wits and diesel-powered rig.

Deregulation has wrecked port trucking system
by David Bensman and Yael Bromberg
The Bergen Record, March 29^th, 2009
The federal deregulation of port trucking, like that of the financial sector, has been a calamity visible throughout the metropolitan area. Trucks parked overnight alongside the interstates or disabled and jamming roads leading from the region’s ports, clouds of smog blocking the sun and the pungent stench of diesel fumes all are telltale signs.

Trucker Trouble
My 9 News, March 15^th, 2009
Trucker Trouble: A new survey from Rutger's University professor Dr. David Bensman, finds that port truck drivers are struggling to make ends meet.

Rutgers study shows independent port truckers struggling
by Victor Epstein
Associated Press, March 13^th, 2009
The money's just not coming in like it once did for independent truckers. It doesn't help that these owner-operators live in one of the nation's costliest areas and that demand for their services is waning as the recession reduces the amount of cargo moving through the port.

Keep on truckin': An overhaul of New York’s port rules would bring vital jobs to the state
by Jerrold Nadler and Andrea Batista Schlesinger
New York Daily News, Thursday, January 22^nd, 2009
With President Obama's administration urging Congress to pass an economic stimulus quickly, local leaders should waste no time pointing to a smart, stable source of middle-class jobs: port trucking in New York's regional economy. If we reverse years of dangerous deregulation, thousands of new low-paying jobs could quickly become sustainable middle-class jobs.

Drive for Cleaner Air: N.J. pushing for restrictions on diesel trucks at ports
by Scott Fallon
The Bergen Record, January 25^th, 2009
Nearly 10,000 trucks drive through the ports each day, spewing 42 tons of diesel soot a year that can cause respiratory problems and even cancer. The traffic at the ports is a significant reason why New Jersey continually fails to meet federal air standards and ranks among the worst regions in the nation for smog.

Study: N.J. Logistics industry pushes costs onto public
The American Shipper, February 25^th, 2009
New Jersey’s logistics industry is “externalizing many of its costs on the public,” because of its reliance on poorly paid independent contractors and older trucks, said a new report from researchers at Rutgers University.

Port authority says clean-trucks program for NY-NJ is inevitable
By John Gallagher
Shipping Digest, December 8^th, 2008
The opportunity is ripe for environmentalists in the areas around marine terminals in New York and northern New Jersey to push for cleaner trucks.

Looking for Leadership
By Prof. David Bensman
Journal of Commerce, April 21^st, 2008
The logistics industry of New York and New Jersey lacks plans to deal with its most important problems; the lack of a port to serve the next generation of post-Panamax ships and a broken drayage industry that creates economic inefficiencies, health costs and environmental damage.

Shifting Gears: Changes and challenges in harbor trucking
By Joseph Bonney
Journal of Commerce, July 9^th, 2007
Harbor trucking is a loosely structured industry that is central to the efficient movement of cargo to, from and within port areas. This special report looks at three facets of the industry.