Truckers Upset over L.A. Clean Truck Program

While green laws are good for the environment, they sometimes have a negative impact on economic and anteprenorial activities. This is clearly the case with the "Clean Truck Program", which was introduced by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, in order to improve the air quality in and around the Port of Los Angeles.

Semi drivers have been encouraged to replace their aging models with less polluting vehicles that have particulate filters that trap harmful gasses before reaching the atmosphere. While being cleaner, the new models are also very expensive, costing over $100,000 (€78,000) each. After leasing the vehicles from the trucking companies for over $1,000 (€780) per month, paying for fuel, insurance and maintenance, not much is left for people trying to earn a living in the trucking industry. The situation is so bad, drivers say that they have been driven to sleep in their rigs at night to save time and increase earning, and even after that after paying for the bills, wages can be as low as $7 (€5) per hour.

According to a Los Angeles Times article, Trucking companies say that the real aim of the Clean Truck Program was to unionize the drivers. Mayor Villaraigosa wanted truckers to give up on being independent contractors in favor of becoming employees of the trucking companies.

In a last-ditch effort to conserve their business models, trucking companies have have taken the government to court in an effort keep the the city from forcing them to hire on the workers with benefits including health care.

"This has nothing to do with the environment; it's a union issue," said Curtis Whalen of the American Trucking Assn., the trade group heading the legal challenge.