Even-handed
Vol. IV, Art. 3

Canada’s Port of Vancouver handles some 1.7 million TEUs annually, and about 40% of it is moved in and out by truck. The LA/Long Beach complex does about eight times as much volume as Vancouver and if local truckers took it upon themselves to go on that mid-summer vacation we talked about in Vol. III, Art. 12, can’t you just imagine what would happen to this nation’s economy?

What if the local drivers did stage a walkout? Simply using a factor of eight;

• Where Vancouver drivers are leaving $ 24 million in shipments undelivered every day, LA/Long Beach drivers would neglect almost $ 200 million.

• Where the weekly loss in Vancouver is being estimated at $ 30 million, the corresponding weekly loss at the LA/Long Beach complex would be in the neighborhood of $ 240 million.

• Approximately 1,200 trucks have been idled at Vancouver, and about eight times that many would be idled in Southern California.

• Vancouver drivers are seeking a weekly increase in pay of about $ 150. Authorities have no objections to this figure but admit that they have no clue with respect to a “methodology” of arranging this nominal increase. Would the authorities in LA/Long Beach find a “methodology” that would generate a figure eight times as high if local drivers decided to take the same approach as their Canadian opposite numbers?

• Without a doubt, a satisfactory settlement will eventually come about up in Vancouver, and without a doubt, the hypothetical situation in Southern California would also be dealt with expeditiously. But it wouldn’t end there. We’d see a repeat of these scenarios sooner rather than later.

Is there a “methodology” that would keep the wheels turning without interruption? Can there be even-handed treatment for those drivers, now being recognized as the vital link “that keeps our national economy moving ... the key to the success at the port because theirs is the capacity that will move your freight off the port”? “Even-handed treatment” just happens to be the elusive “methodology”, but it can’t be administered by those in authority until conventionally-structured terminal operations undergo a dramatic transformation.

“Even-handed treatment” means permanent employment and generous wages for these drivers. Our in-house delivery system makes permanent employment and generous wages possible and this delivery system is a vital part of the dramatic transformation mentioned above. The concept of setting up remedial operations “in-house” is completely alien to a conventionally-structured facility because of space constraints, but it is the creation of space by our patented system that makes possible our “in-house” delivery system as well as the numerous other advantages we’ve been emphasizing throughout these commentaries.