Port Starts Registering Cleaner Trucks

By Kurt Helin
Editor

Threats of a lawsuit may still be a cloud hanging over it, but the Port of Long Beach continues to move ahead with its Clean Trucks program.

As part of that, the port now has available applications for the trucking firms and Licensed Motor Carriers (LMCs) that want to bring cargo in or out of the port.

The vast majority of truck cargo moved though the port happens when an LMC dispatches an independent (or owner-operated) truck, said Art Wong, assistant director of communication for the Port of Long Beach. Under the Clean Truck program, those LMCs will be responsible for only dispatching independent truckers whose trucks meet the new standards.

Those standards mean the LMCs (and firms) must register their trucks — both employee trucks and the owner-operated trucks they dispatch — with the port, ensure the drivers have federal Transportation Worker Identification Credentials, and certify that the trucks they dispatch meet the new Clean Truck programs codes.

“We encourage trucking firms to sign up quickly and join us in this landmark clean-air program,” Port Executive Director Richard Steinke said in a released statement. “We need to move quickly to improve air quality while assuring that trade will continue to move smoothly.”

Those truckers, whoever dispatches them, must comply with the Long Beach Clean Truck plan, meaning that starting Oct. 1, their trucks need to be newer than 1988. By 2012, all trucks will need to be 2007 models or newer, as the newer trucks emit 90% less pollution than the two-decade-old trucks.

Truckers with older models will not get dispatched, Wong said. To help those truckers pay for those new trucks, a grants and a leasing program will be set up by the port. It will be paid for by a $35 per container fee attached to all the containers coming through the ports (this is expected to raise about $2 billion).

There still are some clouds hanging over the Clean Trucks program. One is that the American Trucking Association has threatened a lawsuit against the ports of both Long Beach and Los Angeles over the plans. That threat has been joined by other firms as well, although nothing has yet been filed.

Then there is how the Clean Truck plans at the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles will work together. While both ports have hired Tetra Tech to oversee the truck programs, there are some key differences.

While the timing of the plans is similar, the Port of Los Angeles plan states that all drivers must become employees of trucking companies or LMCs by 2013. Long Beach’s plan has no employee requirement, meaning independent truckers still can work there through LMCs if their trucks are current.

Several truckers working out of Long Beach have complained to the City Council that the Clean Trucks plan is unfair. They said that they can barely make ends meet now and the leasing program through the port would cost them another $400 or so a month, something they cannot afford.