National perspectives on L.A.'s Clean Trucks

The Port of L.A.'s Clean Trucks Program is drawing some national interest, as the city lobbies Washington for permission to re-regulate the local port trucking industry. The program is seen, for better or worse, as a potential model for re-unionization port drivers nationwide.

Whether you think that's a good idea or not depends on your politics. First up, the Wall Street Journal, which takes a dim view of the program:

Unionization would give the Teamsters enormous bargaining leverage over work rules and pay, sharply raising the cost of moving goods, as well the power to shut down ports in a strike. Some 32 trade groups, from farm organizations to the National Retail Federation, signed a recent letter to Mr. Oberstar opposing the legislation. The response of shippers would be to divert cargo to Mexico or Canada, or pass through an expanding Panama Canal for ports on the Gulf or East Coasts. California doesn't need more reasons for business to flee the state.

The change in federal law would also mark a step away from the transportation deregulation that began in the 1970s and that has done so much to reduce costs and improve competition. The damage from a patchwork regulatory system would be felt nationwide, and all for the sake of Mr. Villaraigosa's union pals.

But The American Prospect argues that the Clean Trucks Program is an essential piece of a broad effort to modernize America's ports:

Rotterdam, Europe's largest port, is a marvel of efficiency. More than 7,000 container ships visit its docks annually, most stopping for barely more than a day. New terminal facilities, built on landfill where the river meets the sea, handle 10 million containers with a minimum of congestion and pollution.

The freight -- Chinese clothing and electronics, American pharmaceuticals, Spanish automobiles -- seamlessly flows to warehouses, distribution centers, rail yards, and barges surrounding the port, on time and on schedule. The tightly integrated freight-movement system at the port makes it possible to operate a just-in-time logistics system in which goods arrive at their destination 15 minutes before they are moved to their next spot on the supply chain. This allows shippers to operate with minimal inventory, a must on a continent where most retail shops have minimal space to store goods. Lean logistics means lower interest costs on merchandise, lower insurance costs, less theft, and less need to discount unsold goods.

By comparison, American ports and the logistics and distribution systems they feed are old world.