American Trucking Associations has its day in US Supreme Court vs LA

EMBATTLED American Trucking Associations (ATA) said it was pleased the US Supreme Court will hear its petition to review the Port of Los Angeles' attempt to impose licensing on truckers using the port.

"The ATA is confident that the Supreme Court - which has repeatedly instructed that Congress's deregulatory and pre-emptive intent is to be construed broadly - will agree with us," ATA president and CEO Bill Graves.

Under the guise of environmental protection, said Mr Graves the port's rules insist that trucks display stickers entering and leaving the port and conform to the port's off-street parking rules even when not on harbour property.

"This has nothing to do with improving air quality," he said. "We are pleased the Supreme Court will review the erroneous decision of the appellate court."

The ATA has challenged these provisions because it believes they are incompatible with Congress' command that state and local governments may not regulate motor carrier decisions relating to prices, routes and services.

"Our objections to the port's programme have always been a business-related, and not, as certain groups have asserted, out of a desire to cling to polluting ways," Mr Graves said, reported the American Journal of Transportation of Plymouth, Massachusetts.

"We are proud to have participated in a programme that improved air quality. That success means there is no need to interfere with Congress's intention that the motor carrier industry be shaped by the forces of competition, under a uniform federal regulatory environment, and not by state and local governments that have their own ideas about how the industry should be structured," he said.