Truckers ready to raise a stink: port pollution plan could shutter 1,000 firms.

Michael Lightman has been president of Great Freight Inc. for six years now, yet he doesn't even know if he will have a job next year.

Lightman fears his 60-rig Long Beach trucking company--which operates on thin margins--could be put out of business by a plan developed by the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports to clear San Pedro's smoggy skies.

The $1.2 billion proposal, which would retrofit or replace all of the estimated 16,000 short-haul trucks servings the ports, would be partly funded by a trucker entrance fee of perhaps $40.

That, Lightman figures, could just about wipe out his company's profit on many trips.

"We can't very well plan for our future now," he said. 'There are so many dynamics in this expected change that there's no knowing where things are going to settle down."

Lightman is not alone in his uncertainty.

Hundreds if not 1,000 or more motor carriers could be shuttered next year as a result of the ports' wide-ranging Clean Tracks Program aimed at reducing diesel emissions by some 80 percent, according to the trucking industry.

At issue, aside from the entrance fee, is that of the 1,300 carriers who serve the ports, virtually all of them contract with independent drivers. Those drivers not only set their own work schedules but pay their own fuel, maintenance, insurance and health care costs.

But under the proposal unveiled in April--and set for a July vote by the ports--the motor carriers will be required to hire the drivers as regular employees. Port officials say that will make it far easier to ensure the retrofits and other requirements of the program are carried out, while labor activists say it will improve trackers" working conditions and compensation.

However, the crullers contend the program will radically drive up costs, and force many of the smaller trucking companies out of business, essentially consolidating what has largely been a morn and pop industry. They also contend Kevin Dukesherer employee status will limit drivers" freedom, reduce pay and make port trucking less efficient.

"You're talking about hundreds of companies out there that don't even know right now whether they'll be allowed to do business." said Kevin Dukesherer, director of Progressive Transportation Services Inc., a Bell-based motor carrier with about 175 trucks in California.