A weeklong and ongoing protest at the Port of Oakland by independent truckers has had an immediate impact upon the movement of containers from the nation’s fifth busiest container port.
After blocking terminal gates at the northern California port during the week of July 18, truckers paused their protest over the weekend, when the port does not have scheduled operations, but may resume their actions Monday (July 25), Reuters reported Saturday (July 23.)
On Monday (July 25) morning, a page on the website of the Oakland International Container Terminal (OICT) said, “Due to ongoing trucker protests regarding AB5 OICT will be closed for the day and night shift.”
Under California’s Assembly Bill 5 (AB5), which put in place the law the truckers oppose, workers who fail to pass a three-part test will no longer be classified as independent contractors and must be treated as employees.
Shutting Down Operations
In the early days of the protests, digital supply chain visibility provider project44 reported on July 18 that the protests had already led to a 41% increase in import container dwell time compared to just a week earlier. The Port of Oakland’s dwell time — the amount of time a container sits before getting picked up after being unloaded from a ship — leapt from 12.4 days on July 11 to 17.5 days on July 16.
Two days later, on July 20, the Port of Oakland released a statement saying the protests had effectively shut down operations at its shipping terminals.
“We understand the frustration expressed by the protesters at California ports,” Port of Oakland Executive Director Danny Wan said in the statement. “But, prolonged stoppage of port operations in California for any reason will damage all the businesses operating at the ports and cause California ports to further suffer market share losses to competing ports.”
Fueling the Ongoing Supply Chain Crisis
The protests began after the Supreme Court declined to hear a trucking industry lawsuit on June 30, putting an end to a temporary injunction that had suspended the application of AB5 to truck owner-operators.
Read more: California Law Threatens Legal Status of 70,000 Truck Drivers
The trucking industry has pushed to be excluded from AB5 since it relies on contractors. Over 70% of truckers moving goods at California’s big ports are owner-operators.
“Gasoline has been poured on the fire that is our ongoing supply chain crisis,” the California Trucking Association said in a statement issued on the day the Supreme Court announced it would not review the association’s case challenging AB5.
“In addition to the direct impact on California’s 70,000 owner-operators who have seven days to cease long-standing independent businesses, the impact of taking tens of thousands of truck drivers off the road will have devastating repercussions on an already fragile supply chain, increasing costs and worsening runaway inflation,” said the association that represents individual owner-operators, small family-owned for-hire fleets and large international carriers.
Aiming to Accommodate Truckers’ Needs
The Port of Oakland said in its July 20 statement that California is now offering resources to help truckers comply with the requirements of AB5.
“Truckers are vital to keeping goods moving,” Wan said. “We trust that implementation of AB5 can be accomplished in a way that accommodates the needs of this vital part of the supply chain.”
We’re always on the lookout for opportunities to partner with innovators and disruptors.
Learn More