The Port of Los Angeles is recommending that harbor commissioners push back the first phase of the port’s controversial clean trucks program until the end of 2011.

Container pick-up turn times for drayage operators at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are improving due to additional gate openings, increased staff and flex lunch hour shifts, motor carriers and terminal operators said Monday. 

Several trade groups told federal regulators that requiring more detailed information on applications for special permits to haul hazardous materials will not increase hazmat safety and will increase the paperwork burden on applicants.

The Environmental Protection Agency and California Air Resources Board have agreed to begin a “thorough review” of their policies regarding the operation of selective catalytic reduction-equipped heavy-duty diesel engines when diesel engine fluid tanks run dry.

The U.S. Department of Transportation Monday issued a new final rule on drug testing for transportation workers that will add tests for more drugs.

Members of a coalition of truckers, chemical manufacturers, and other trade groups are in discussions with U.S. customs officials over a yet-to-be-enforced, controversial requirement that motor carriers and exporters stipulate on electronic manifests the amount of residual chemicals left inside cargo and portable tank containers when returning from deliveries in Canada and Mexico.

Legislation that would ban the transportation of horses in double-decker trailers would cost the nearly 80 contractors who transport livestock to rodeos all over the U.S. more than $4 million in extra operating and equipment costs, according to estimates by the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association.

The introduction of a new bill aimed at giving ports more authority to enact environmental regulations is expanding the battle over the Port of Los Angeles’ controversial employee-only clean trucks plan from the courts to Congress.

A Senate bill that supporters said would make it easier for federal regulators to catch employers who misclassify their employees as independent contractors also would help ensure a “level playing field in the marketplace,” a top official with the Department of Labor told a Senate panel.