Transportation

Clean Trucks Program (of the Clean Air Action Plan)

To reduce air pollution from harbor trucks by more than 80 percent within five years

Topic Areas Addressed:

Transportation

Was this useful?

Keywords:

air quality, transportation, los angeles, fuels, diesel, port trucks

Submitting Jurisdiction:

City of Los Angeles

Recognizing that diesel-powered harbor trucks are a major source of air pollution in the City of Los Angeles, the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach adopted the Clean Trucks Program in November 2007; the program is aimed at drayage truck owners to scrap and replace approximately 16,000 trucks used for Port activities. Additionally, the program requires all trucks to meet aggressive emissions standards or face a flat $35 fee (per loaded twenty-foot equivalent unit) for noncompliance. Further requirements include:

• Cutting truck diesel emissions by 80 percent
• Calling for replacement or retrofit of thousand of port trucks to meet EPA’s 2007 diesel emissions standards by 2012
• Prohibiting all pre-1989 trucks from entering the port terminals beginning February 2009

Fee exemptions are applicable to cutting-edge alternative fuel trucks and privately-funded truck retrofits meeting the 2007 EPA standards.

Trucks must first be entered into a port-managed Drayage Truck Registry, which allows the ports to track a truck’s model year, retrofit status, and owner information to ensure only compliant trucks may enter the ports beginning 2012. To monitor this process, the ports will require trucks to carry electronic identification tags.

Target Audience:

Truck owners, companies, and drivers involved in Port activity

Measurable Outcomes:

Since October 2008, 60% of gate moves and a total of 5,800 compliant trucks are now compliant in Los Angeles’ San Pedro Bay. From October 2008 through May 2009, the Clean Trucks Program replaced 4,500 dirty diesel trucks with new or retrofitted ones.

With full implementation of the Port Clean Air Action Plan and the development of the Port’s Climate Action Plan, the Port will meet ambitious air pollution targets of a 45% reduction of particulate matter; 47% reduction of NOX; 52% reduction of SOX, and a significant reduction in carbon emissions. In order to meet these goals, the Port will need to aggressively replace diesel trucks and equipment inside the port area with electric powered machinery.

Fiscal Impacts:

The Clean Trucks Program is funded by a number of sources. Originally, both Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach allocated $80 million each of port funding.

The Clean Truck Fee, which presently stands at $35 per twenty foot equivalent unit and is collected for every inbound-gate move, will last for the duration of the program – January 1, 2012.

Approved November 2006, State Proposition IB Program (Air Quality Emissions Reduction funds) also aids in the costs of the program. In June 2008, the two ports were given the ability to issue around $100 million of the Prop IB funds to the trucking community through a Grant Agreement with California Air Resources Board, which allowed them to serve as a “local agency.”

Originating Source:

The Clean Air Action Plan is the general plan aimed at significantly reducing the health risks associated with air pollution from port-related ships, trains, trucks, terminal equipment, and harbor craft. With full implementation, the ports may achieve air pollution reductions of 47%.