Rutgers study: Port trucking is broken, costs public on several fronts

“The industry has succeeded in shifting much of its costs to the public, which has to pay for excessive diesel emissions, for the health care costs of port truckers and their families, for traffic congestion and accidents, and for the general inefficiency of the freight delivery system,” the study’s authors said. “Fixing the broken system of port trucking would bring billions of dollars of benefits to the economy of the New York-New Jersey region.”

The study’s authors laid the blame on the deregulation of the U.S. trucking industry by the federal ICC Termination Act of 1980, which they said “profoundly affected the conduct of business at northern New Jersey ports”; the changes that followed “are still having a negative impact” on how some 7,000 truckers work at the ports.

The researchers surveyed 299 truck drivers, selected at random, at the ports of Newark, Elizabeth and Bayonne.

Since the 1980 law, most of the trucking firms conducting business to and from the nation’s ports have ceased operations, Bensman said. The firms have been replaced by small companies that assign most of their shipping orders to independent contractors who are paid by the load.

Most of the drivers were male, aged 35 to 44; two-thirds were Latino immigrants who lived in working poor neighborhoods in Newark, Elizabeth and Jersey City, the study found. Their annual earnings ranged between $28,000 and $35,000, and few have health insurance or pension benefits.

“Their 11-year-old diesel vehicles spewed at least 10 times as much particulate matter as more modern trucks, consumed more fuel, and cost more to maintain and operate,” the study said.

Drivers also reported suffering from high levels of stress, high blood pressure and other work-related chronic health conditions and injuries. A quarter of all drivers surveyed rely on public clinics or emergency rooms for health care, and the public bears the brunt of these costs, the study’s authors said.

Bensman tracked the potential impact if truckers no longer needed to endure two-hour waits when they arrive at a port to pick up or deliver a container.

“If all drivers were paid for the time they spend waiting on line at the terminals, the terminals’ customers would have greater incentive to pressure terminal operators to increase efficiency,” he said.

If drivers earned more and received higher rates per order, the logistics industry would have a greater incentive to invest in new technology and more fuel-efficient trucks, among other benefits, Bensman added.

Managers at several trucking companies in the New Jersey were not immediately available for comment; many are attending an industry conference in Washington, D.C., today.