Ocean cargo: Port of LA’s “Clean Trucks Program” gains support

Patrick Burnson, Executive Editor -- Logistics Management, 6/19/2008

LOS ANGELES—In a move that is sure to fuel the fire, the Los Angeles City Council gave its approval to the Port of Los Angeles’ controversial Clean Truck Program (CTP) yesterday.

“I applaud the City Council for saying enough is enough,” said Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. “When 1,200 lives are cut short every year by toxic emissions coming from the port, we have a moral mandate to act fast and effectively. That is why LA is committed to a clean truck program that will clean and green our ports for the long haul.”

Transport industry insiders, however, have long viewed the CTP as a political stunt designed to scrap the free market drayage system now in place.

“We have every confidence that this program will be ruled illegal once it reaches the courts,” said Matthew Scrhap, manager of environmental affairs for the California Trucking Associations. “This move will do nothing to strengthen the port’s case.”

Indeed, some analysts suggest that it may even prompt the American Trucking Associations (ATA) to take its threatened legal action sooner than later.

Meanwhile, CTP advocates are telling local citizens that the plan designed to help mitigate port-related, diesel truck emissions represents a “landmark” which adds further momentum to the port’s transition to a License Motor Carrier-based truck concession system beginning October 1, 2008.

Not surprisingly, the plan has been embraced and aggressively promoted by the Teamsters.

Port spokesmen said that LA will ask its concessionaires to agree to work with the port to develop technologies that track empty containers and match them with deliveries of loaded containers. Concessionaires will also be asked to help develop effective schedule strategies that avoid congestion at terminal gates and optimize the use of drayage trucks. 

The port will begin registering frequent-calling trucks in the coming weeks and will also begin making on-site registration for the federal Transportation Worker Identification Credential available within the month.