Nearly a week after Los Angeles and Long Beach port truck drivers picketed terminals, rail yards and trucking companies because they want to be considered employees and not independent contractors, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced Monday the creation of a short-haul firm that he says will become a new model for the trucking industry.
Standing among port truckers and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters at Dodger Stadium, Garcetti announced the formation of Ontario-based Eco Flow Transportation, which has been operating for a month and includes 80 employee drivers. Many of them formerly worked for Total Transportation Services, Inc., which allegedly misclassifies truckers as independent contractors instead of employees. Truckers say the designation allows companies to skirt labor laws and pay less-than-fair wages.
Eco Flow, in contrast, has the potential to grow to 500 employee drivers by next year, under an agreement with the Teamsters.
“We must make sure the ports work for the drivers who bring the goods from the docks to your doorstep,” said Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, who helped broker the agreement between Eco Flow and the Teamsters.
“The misclassification of port truck drivers is not the gripe of a few drivers but a battle cry of a systemic problem that must be addressed,” Garcetti said. “These professional men and women drivers are just the type of middle-class Angelenos we need to support as we build an economy that works for everyone. Eco Flow is leading the way and becoming a model for the future of goods movement in Southern California — and soon, the rest of the nation as well.”
Under a “port solutions agreement” with the Teamsters, the new firm — backed by Los Angeles-based private equity firm Saybrook Capital — uses solely employee drivers. The agreement also makes the company a neutral player in whether truckers there want to unionize, allows the Teamsters and TTSI to work out legal issues and promotes solutions for quickly moving cargo off terminals.
Saybrook’s chairman Jonathan Rosenthal said Eco Flow represents “a real transformation, not only for our company but for the industry.”
“Drayage trucking needs to adapt to the changing trends in goods movement and this new company model is symbolic of that needed change,” Rosenthal said. “We look forward to continued growth, efficient operations and a reliable working environment for our company employees.”
Alex Paz, an employee driver for Eco Flow Transportation, said it’s hard to believe that a year ago, he was protesting former employer TTSI. Now he’s celebrating Eco Flow with Garcetti.
“We are 100 percent committed to working with you all to make Eco Flow a success,” Paz said. “We know that we are a part of something new and different and great. And we are committed to helping to make the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach more efficient because we know that what we haul on and off the docks is what makes America great.”
