Making up for lost business, truckers boost port fees. (Up Front).

Truckers who long have felt underpaid for their work at the ports are establishing some new clout as shipping terminals try to clear a backlog of cargo that piled up during a 10-day shutdown in October.

They are demanding that shippers pay surcharges of up to $400 per load or their cargo will remain on the docks -- and most shippers are paying it out of desperation to get their goods out of the ports.

Truckers say that without the surcharges they would lose too much money because of the port's long lines caused by the backlog. Even before the current logjam, truckers claimed the wait for cargo was sometimes as much as six hours.

"The truckers are fighting back for the first time ever," said Stephanie Williams, vice president of legislative affairs for the California Trucking Association. "This is an independent effort." Truck companies are going out and whacking shippers on their own."

Some truck companies have instituted a blanket surcharge of $100 per load on top of normal delivery fees that range from $150 for a trip to a South Bay city, to $800 to go to Northern California.

Other companies are imposing surcharges ranging from $100 to $400 per load, depending on how long drivers must wait outside the gates. Shippers that want their cargo hauled have the option of paying the fees or signing an agreement to pay drivers $25 to $50 for each hour their trucks are idling.

Refusals by truckers

Many truckers have refused to even travel to terminals with notoriously long lines unless they are compensated. Nearly all the estimated 12,000 drivers that haul from the ports are independent owner-operators hired by trucking companies. Long delays cut into the amount of trips they can make each day.

These drivers were stripped of their income altogether during the 10-day shutdown of West Coast ports by the Pacific Maritime Association in response to what management said were work slowdowns by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. The two sides came to an agreement on a new pact, which will be voted on by union members in January.

Importers and exporters said they haven't made any effort to avoid the additional fees and aren't in much position to do so. Their focus has centered on getting their cargo out of the ports and preventing additional L.A.--and Long Beach-bound ships from diverting containers to less congested ports.

"If (surcharges) were the only problem on the West Coast, it might have more of an impact," said Kathy Luhn, vice president of the National Industrial Transportation League, an Arlington, Va.-based shippers trade organization. "Do I wish they wouldn't levy a surcharge? By all means. But it's hard to say it's unfair. Ultimately the people that will be hurt most are the consumers because this will get passed through."

Some trucking companies have also tried to levy surcharges on terminal operators but with less success.

"I was told somebody tried to give one of the terminals a surcharge and they kicked them out of here," said Tim Parker, executive secretary of the Steamship Association of Southern California, a trade group representing port tenants. "This is clearly the truckers' response to this-is-what-you-did-to-me-in-October. I don't think it's fair."

He expects surcharges to remain in place until at least late January when the amount of cargo stacked at terminal yards is expected to return to normal levels.

Deregulation effects

Deregulation of the trucking industry in the late 1980s outlawed the setting of across-the-board rates and allowed ship companies and terminal operators (both of which are paid by importers and exporters) to low-ball truck companies. But the tides changed earlier this year with new legislation benefiting truckers.

Most notably was passage in September of a bill authored by Assemblyman Alan Lowen-thal, D-Long Beach, that fines terminal operators $250 for each truck forced to idle outside terminal gates for more than 30 minutes.

The money will be earmarked to the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which in turn will allocate grants to drivers to replace or retrofit older diesel engines that emit heavy pollutants, particularly when idling.

The law goes into effect Jan. 1, 2003, but terminals that extend their gate hours to at least 70 hours over a five-day period each week or devise a scheduling system for drivers to arrive during less busy times will be exempt from fines until July 1.

When ports reopened Oct. 9 after the shutdown, terminals unloaded import cargo at levels far above capacity.

By Nov. 12, the last of the ships unloaded their cargo at L.A. and Long Beach, creating such a logistics nightmare that export cargo was turned away due to a lack of space. Containers that normally stacked no more than four-high are now six-high, creating additional delays for drivers whose cargo is on the bottom of a stack.