California Governor Gavin Newsom had two troublesome port-related bills cross his desk recently. He signed one and vetoed the other.
He signed SB703 which requires trucking companies and individual motor carriers to provide the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach company and driver details.
The information collected will include insurance coverage (including workers compensation), DOT number, California Motor Carrier Permit number, and, for companies, the number of drivers employed as well as any significant reduction in headcount.
The port is then responsible to provide that information to the California Labor Commission along with information on each driver who entered a terminal, including what terminal, date/time entered, name of the truck owner and name on the insurance certificate.
We cannot make this stuff up.
He vetoed SB34. What started out as a way to limit the state’s air quality management districts from regulating port-related emissions morphed into banning any federal or state funding to be used for port automation at the ports of Los Angeles or Long Beach.
The bill was so broadly written it could have been used to dismantle the automation currently in use as well as ban further development.
The governor vetoed the bill as it “interfered with the cooperative process” between the ports and the regulators.