LA/LB to Begin Disbursing Clean-Trucks Fees

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have each been collecting more than $200,000 a day in clean-trucks fees since Feb.18. They intend to begin disbursing that money soon to help motor carriers purchase new vehicles under their clean-trucks programs.

Meanwhile, the ports' Drayage Truck Registry has identified some 3,500 trucks that meet the 2007-model emission standards contained in the Clean Air Action Plan. Chris Cannon, program manager in Los Angeles for the clean-trucks plan, said the response from the harbor drayage community to the clean-trucks mandate has been more enthusiastic than was originally anticipated.

"That's a lot more than we thought we'd have by this time," Cannon said. When the ports announced their clean-trucks plans, they had projected there would be 1,000 to 1,500 compliant trucks in the harbor after one year, Cannon told an intermodal goods movement seminar Wednesday in Long Beach.

The Los Angeles and Long Beach clean-trucks plans are intended by Jan. 1, 2012, to reduce harmful diesel emissions from harbor drayage trucks by at lest 80 percent. Cannon said it looks like the emission reductions will be closer to 90 percent.

Emission reductions will occur as motor carrier replace old, polluting trucks with new vehicles that meet the federal Environmental Protection Agency standards for 2007 model trucks.

Not only are motor carriers phasing newer trucks into their fleets faster than anticipated, but they are investing in the cleanest models available. Cannon said the ports' Drayage Truck Registry recorded a spike in 2009-model trucks, and this surge has raised the average fleet age in the registry to 2000 model trucks.

Recognizing that harbor trucking is a low-margin business, the ports included in their clean-trucks plans provisions for a $35 per-TEU fee that is charged to importers and exporters. The ports had committed to using the money to subsidize motor carriers for up to 80 percent of the cost of a new truck.

The ports had intended to begin collecting the fee on Oct. 1, 2008, when they initiated a ban on all pre-1989 trucks. However, the fee collection was held up due to litigation. Also, the ports had intended to use state bond revenue as part of the subsidy program, but release of that money has been blocked due to California's budget crisis.

The trucking industry responded by financing a number of trucks with private money. Also, Los Angeles spent its own money to offer incentives of $20,000 per truck.