SoCal Ports Face Dray Truck Scramble

The harbor trucking community in Southern California will have to scramble to replace or retrofit about 7,500 trucks over the next 10 months in order to meet the next deadline in the Los Angeles-Long Beach clean-truck program.

The ports on Jan. 1, 2010, will ban all pre-1994 trucks. Also, 1994 to 2003 trucks must be retrofitted with anti-pollution devices in order to operate in the harbor.

Last year, the ports banned all pre-1989 trucks. The trucking community easily replaced more than 2,000 of the oldest trucks operating in the harbor without causing a shortage of drayage capacity.

Port representatives who addressed the Los Angeles Transportation Club March 10 conceded that the next deadline will be more challenging because a much larger number of trucks will have to be replaced.

While the precise number is not known, it could total 7,500 to 8,000, which would be a rather large percentage of the existing harbor drayage fleet, said Tom Jelenic, assistant director-environmental, at the Port of Long Beach. At its peak, the harbor drayage fleet totaled about 16,800.

Motor carriers with newer trucks that wish retrofit their vehicles at a cost of about $20,000 each face rather than pay $100,000 for a new truck face a Catch-22 situation. The ports allow retrofitting only if the trucks are brought up to 2007-model emissions standards, but at present the California Air Resources Board has not certified any retrofit device that meets that standard.

The ports on Feb. 18 began collecting a $35 per-TEU fee on every container pulled into or out of the harbor by non-compliant trucks, and the revenues will be used to subsidize the purchase of new trucks or retrofitting of others. Chris Cannon, program manager for the Port of Los Angeles Clean Truck Program, said the initial revenues are being tabulated and will be released publicly when they are available.

While the clean-truck fees have probably caused some diversion of cargo, they serve a dual purpose, Jelenic said. In addition to raising money to help motor carriers purchase compliant trucks, the fees offer an incentive to companies to privately finance new truck purchases. Compliant trucks purchased without port subsidies do not have to pay the $35 per-TEU clean truck fee, but subsidized trucks are subject to the fee.