Post by largecar on Nov 15, 2009 8:36:08 GMT -5
Oakland truckers to meet Monday to discuss port ban problems
“With less than six weeks remaining until the CARB ban on non-compliant drayage trucks takes effect, hundreds of truckers are wondering what to do and where the money will come from to put food on the table,” stated a news release from the Alliance.
The Trucker News Services
11/13/2009
OAKLAND, Calif. — Up to an estimated 1,200 big rigs serving the Port of Oakland here will be barred from entering the port on Jan. 1, 2010, due to the ban on non-compliant drayage trucks, says the port truckers group, West State Alliance. The group is holding a meeting at 5 p.m. Monday, Nov. 16 in the first floor exhibit room of the port, 530 Water Street in Oakland, to discuss the financial burden it will place on truckers.
“With less than six weeks remaining until the CARB ban on non-compliant drayage trucks takes effect, hundreds of truckers are wondering what to do and where the money will come from to put food on the table,” stated a news release from the Alliance.
The release went on to say that the CARB-mandated retrofits “pose an enormous financial burden on the drivers.”
The group explained that state bond money was appropriated to help finance the retrofit of older trucks with diesel exhaust emission controls but that in the economic downturn, “grant funds were no longer available.”
“How, if the state cannot come up with the money originally designated for these retrofits, can the drivers still be required to bear this burden,” the release stated. “They are living in the same economic downturn as the rest of the state.”
There are a total of an estimated 3,000 independent trucks and drivers serving the Port of Oakland and the Alliance release stated that the ban on the ones whose trucks do not meet CARB standards will mean “the loss of jobs and … the very livelihood of many Oakland residents.”
According to the Alliance, representatives from CARB and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District will be at the meeting to answer truckers’ questions.
The Trucker staff can be contacted to comment on this article at editor@thetrucker.com.