DRAYDRAYOF RECKONING

Harbor truckers drive toward a new world order,
but first must survive the economic upheaval

MOTOR CARRIERS SERVING the nation’s ports and rail ramps are convinced that if they can survive the global trade recession for six more months, they will be well positioned to thrive in an improving economy.

Gerard J. Coyle, vice president of marketing and agent development at the Pennsylvania-based Evans Net work of Companies, says traffic is down about 15 to 20 percent at its East Coast ports and inland hub operations. But business is picking up in Atlanta and Memphis, and Coyle believes a national recovery could start in late 2009.

“I think we will see better gains in the first or second quarter of 2010, about 5 percent,” Coyle said.

The harbor trucking industry that emerges will

be leaner, more efficient and environmentally friendly — and still could be headed down the road toward unionization.

Until then, the challenge for drayage companies nationwide is to cut costs and operate more efficiently in an environment where freight rates have fallen at least 10 percent since the beginning of the year.

“Economic conditions are tough, and truckers will get squeezed. There are likely to be more failures,” said Paul Bingham, managing director of global trade and transportation at IHS Global Insight.

As weaker companies leave the harbor, motor carriers with access to capital and a solid fleet-replacement program will prosper.

“It’s difficult to look a year

or two down the road, but companies that are investing in new equipment today will ensure that they’ll still be here,” said Patty Senecal, government affairs representative at Harbor Truckers for a Sustainable Future in Southern California, a coalition of intermodal carriers in Los Angeles and Long Beach.

The harbor trucking industry has weathered a host of economic adversi-ties this year. In addition to plunging freight rates, truckers survived the implementation of the Transportation Worker Identification Credential, the federal security program that requires all workers needing access to secure areas of ports to have a biometric identification card.

In the run-up to April’s implementation, the indus-