Post by HardTimeTrucker on Sept 30, 2008 16:55:05 GMT -5
Ports ready to enforce clean-trucks plan
The JOURNAL of COMMERCE
September 30, 2008
By Bill Mongelluzzo
LONG BEACH, Calif. -- Starting Wednesday, all pre-1989 trucks will be banned from the harbor and motor carriers must display concessionaire stickers on their vehicles when they call at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
The nation’s first clean-truck plan, which is designed to reduce truck pollution by 80 percent over the next five years, will take effect on Wednesday. Although they face legal challenges down the road, the ports overcame industry attempts to block implementation of the concession agreements.
The ports and terminal operators hope to avoid congestion at marine terminals Wednesday by positioning security personnel outside of the gate areas to turn away trucks that do not have stickers indicating that the motor carriers hold valid concessions from the ports.
The Port of Long Beach sent 15,000 concession stickers to motor carriers, so truckers should have no problem complying with the new regulation, said Art Wong, a port spokesman Art Wong. “We’re telling them if you don’t have a sticker, don’t send your truck to the harbor. It will be turned away,” he said.
The Port of Los Angeles also sent out thousands of stickers. Each port has its own style of stickers.
Long Beach set up two terminal access centers in the harbor for out-of-state truckers that do not do enough business at the ports to become concessionaires. Truckers can purchase a day pass at the centers.
Banning pre-1989 trucks, which are too old to be retrofitted with anti-pollution devices, is not expected to cause problems. As developments involving establishment of the clean-truck programs unfolded in recent months, port surveys found fewer and fewer old trucks calling at the terminals.
The ports also anticipate that there will be plenty of trucking capacity to handle the cargo volume. More than 500 motor carriers with about 11,000 trucks have applied for concessions. The ports last year estimated that the harbor trucking fleet totaled 16,800, but thousands of old trucks are believed to have been pulled from harbor service since then.
The lack of a peak season this year is helping the ports. With the weak economy, diversion of cargo due to concern over the West Coast longshore contract negotiations and a steady shift of business to East Coast ports following a sharp increase in intermodal rail rates, container volumes this year are actually lower than they were last year.
The concession stickers are a temporary measure until the ports complete development of a truck registry and set up PortCheck, an electronic system for processing a new clean-truck fee and remitting the revenues to the ports.
When the electronic programs are completed, probably by the end of October, the ports will begin assessing a $35-per-TEU clean-truck fee on cargo interests whose trucks do not meet the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2007-model standards for low emissions.
The ports will use the money to help motor carriers purchase new clean-diesel or alternative fuel vehicles that comply with the emission standards.
The fees will not be assessed until PortCheck is in operation. Some cargo interests expressed concern that the ports would gather information on noncompliant trucks beginning Oct. 1 and then back-bill them once PortCheck is set up, but Wong said that will not happen.