"Driving on Fumes: Port Truck Congestion Exposes the High Cost of Doing Business in Newark"

by the Coalition for Healthy Ports, Spring 2009

A broken business model at the Ports of Newark and Elizabeth has a choke hold on port truck drivers and the residents of the surrounding communities. The Ports of Newark and Elizabeth are the nation's third largest trade hub, but port-adjacent communities have not benefited from the billions of dollars generated by port commerce.

"Port Trucking Down the Low Road: The Sad Story of Deregulation"

by DEMOS, July 2009

Port trucking, the segment of the freight movement industry that carries 80 percent of shipping containers between ports and warehouses or distribution centers, is an essential cog in the global trade system, and as this report from David Bensman shows, suffers from excessive, destructive competition.

Driving on Fumes: Truck Drivers Face Elevated Health Risks from Diesel Pollution

by the National Resources Defense Council, December 2007

Diesel pollution is well known to be hazardous to human health. Groups at particular risk include workers in diesel industries, such as trucking and rail, and communities located near major sources of diesel pollution, such as ports and freeways. Truck drivers who serve ports are at especially high risk. They may be exposed to pollution from their own diesel trucks, and they drive in locations where there are many other sources of diesel pollution including other port trucks, cargo handling equipment, ships, and locomotives—and are likely to inhale soot from the air around them.

Fix, Lead, Grow: Vancouver’s Solution to a Broken Port Trucking Industry

by the Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports, September 2007

The Ports of Vancouver and Fraser River are the first ports in North America to address the broken port trucking industry. Their experiences and initial challenges provide some useful lessons for stakeholders in the United States. These experiences shed light on how to successfully address the environmental, safety, security, productivity and workforce issues in our ports.

The Road to Shared Prosperity: The Regional Economic Benefits of the San Pedro Bay Ports’ Clean Trucks Program

By the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, August 2007

Port trucking in the San Pedro Bay is one of the clearest examples of a market failure in the American economy. When the costs of doing business are not borne by industry, but are instead pushed outside of the industry’s costs structure, this type of market failure is known as externalizing costs. Such negative externalities have characterized the port trucking industry for nearly 30 years.