OAKLAND, California — Following a shaky start on Monday morning, an estimated 400 owner-operators successfully shut down truck traffic at all three terminals at the Port of Oakland to protest California’s contentious independent contractor law, AB5.
By Monday afternoon, the SSA, TraPac, and Everport terminals had indicated that there would be no night shift hours because protesting owner-operators were only admitting two company trucks per hour into the terminal gates during the day. On a regular work day, 250 trucks per hour would pass through the terminals.
The Harbor Trucking Association’s CEO, Matt Schrap, who was in Oakland on Monday, praised the protest.
“Seeing the power of social media on exhibit at the Port of Oakland today was quite astounding,” Schrap told FreightWaves. “We witnessed the protests grow organically in a matter of days and brought together hundreds of people who feel this law is disproportionately affecting them.”
He stated that more information is needed on how AB5 will be enforced and how owner-operators would be held accountable. AB5 aims to minimize the usage of independent contractors and categorize them primarily as staff drivers.
The HTA is an intermodal carrier alliance that serves three major California ports, including Los Angeles/Long Beach and Oakland.
Protesters in Oakland who own their own rigs and presently choose which loads to haul do not want to work as company drivers, as many will be forced to do under AB5.
AB5 was unable to take into effect in January 2020 due to ongoing legal issues. The statute is the result of a ruling by the California Supreme Court against Dynamex Operations West Inc., a package and document delivery company. The court determined that Dynamex misclassified its delivery drivers as independent contractors rather than employees and that all California-based businesses that use independent contractors must adopt the “ABC test,” a three-pronged methodology for determining whether a worker is an employee.
According to the B prong, an independent contractor is a worker who is performing “work that is outside the regular course of the hiring entity’s business.” This is a concern for motor carriers who rely on independent owner-operators to transport freight.
The Oakland protest is gaining traction.
The port drivers had effectively shut the east and west gates of the SSA terminal in Oakland around 8 a.m. PST Monday. While the terminal briefly opened a secondary gate to allow business vehicles through, owner-operators successfully blocked that entry as well, forcing some company drivers to turn around and depart port property before trying again Tuesday. Protesters marched to the terminals to prevent commercial trucks from entering.
Some owner-operators want to protest again on Tuesday, according to Kimberly Sulsar-Campos, vice president of Oakland-based Iraheta Bros. Trucking. While the first protest was scheduled to last three days, over 200 port drivers agreed to shorten it to one day at a meeting near the port on Friday.
According to Sulsar-Campos, no formal statement has been made that the AB5 protest will last another two days.
According to her, Iraheta Bros. was started by a group of owner-operators who wanted to start their own trucking firm. The drayage company now has 20 owner-operators who reject AB5 and want a say in how their enterprises are governed.
“We have owner-operators who want to be able to select when they want to work and don’t want to be company drivers who are told when they will work and how much they will be paid,” Sulsar-Campos explained to FreightWaves.
Some California truckers who transport containers into and out of marine terminals at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach staged a work stoppage Wednesday to protest AB5, and they urged Oakland drivers to do the same.
AB5 is known as a “dream destroyer.”
Rafael Quintero, the owner of one of Oakland’s oldest drayage companies, attended the rally to support his ten owner-operators. He referred to AB5 as “an American dream killer” for thousands of minority drivers who came to the United States with the hope of starting their own enterprises.
He began as an owner-operator in 1979 and grew his company to nearly 80 drivers before reducing it to 10 in recent years.
“Many port drivers, like myself, came from poverty and immigrated to America to escape government control,” Quintero told FreightWaves. “These owner-operators can provide for their families and save money with the goal of one day owning their own businesses, just like I did.”
Some Oakland demonstrators held banners that said, “The 70,000+ owner-operators chose freedom over fear” and “Don’t let AB5 remove our freedom.”
The Western States Trucking Association’s director of governmental affairs, Joe Rajkovacz, said his members are concerned about the impact of AB5. He claims that WSTA members seeking legal guidance have received conflicting information from attorneys about how to comply with AB5 if the law remains in effect.
“One of our members was urged to split the company into a brokerage and construct S corporations for their three owner-operators,” Rajkovacz told FreightWaves.
When the company owners followed the attorney’s advice on AB5, he said the WSTA member was slammed with a $180,000 tax debt since one of their owner-operators received Pandemic Unemployment Assistance due to COVID-19, which caused work in the construction industry to virtually shut down.
“This triggered an audit by the Employment Development Department [EDD],” Rajkovacz explained. “We require clarification before this occurs to other trucking company owners attempting to comply with AB5”
The majority of trucks entering the Port of Oakland on Monday were driven by corporate drivers from California’s Central Valley. To demonstrate solidarity with people protesting AB5, most owner-operators were in their rigs or personal automobiles, while others stayed at home and did not draw containers from the port.
LDT Transport owner Larry Dhaliwal attended the protest to support his 30 owner-operators.
“They want to be able to work whenever they want and not be compelled to become business drivers,” Dhaliwal explained to FreightWaves.
Some demonstrators were upset that more owner-operators did not arrive at the Port of Oakland before the longshoremen did on Monday.
Prior to the protest, some dockworkers stated that if the port truckers successfully blocked access to all terminal gates, they would not cross the protest line.
“It’s incredibly difficult to organize a protest for owner-operators,” an unnamed owner-operator told FreightWaves. “Everyone has different opinions about how to deal with AB5”
According to Robert Bernardo, the Port of Oakland’s director of communications, port officials are actively watching the situation. He did, however, dispute estimates from those on the front lines on Monday that the demonstrators numbered between 300 and 400 owner-operators. Bernardo estimated 100 to 130 truckers.
“There is some traffic congestion at both TraPac and SSA terminals, so we are working closely with our marine stakeholders to ensure a safe and continuous flow of commerce,” Bernardo said FreightWaves in an email.
FreightWaves attended Monday’s Port of Oakland Truck Work Group meeting, where the truckers’ AB5 protest was discussed.
At the discussion, Bill Aboudi, owner of Oakland-based AB Trucking, asked a port official in attendance not to minimize the inconvenience and economic impact of the protest on the port’s terminal business operations.
The terminals’ in-gates were mostly vacant Monday, but he noted that on a normal day, drayage trucks would be lined up for miles waiting their turn.
Downplaying the impact will irritate the owners even more, according to Aboudi, who cited examples of how the Port of Oakland has responded to protests in the past.
“Just be frank and honest with us about the consequences,” he said.
