A plan by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District to retrofit 800 drayage trucks serving the Port of Oakland with diesel-emission capturing devices is expected to be complete by the end of the year, according to agency officials.
The retrofit devices, part of a combined $22 million subsidy program funded by the air quality agency, the US Environmental Agency, and the port, are claimed by the BAAQMD to cut diesel emissions from the port’s drayage trucks by up to 85 percent. The combined funding, which will help truckers and trucking firms to offset some of the cost of the retrofit devices, will also be used to provide area motor carriers with partial offsets for the purchase of about 170 new trucks in the port drayage fleet.
The subsidy program follows last week’s approval by the Oakland port commission to ban pre-1994 model year trucks from servicing the port after Jan. 1, 2010. As part of the trucking restrictions, the port will also require that all 1994 to 2003 model year trucks—which make up nearly 80 percent of the 2,000-strong drayage fleet—must either be replaced with newer trucks or be retrofitted with diesel emission-capturing devices.
The retrofit devices, part of a combined $22 million subsidy program funded by the air quality agency, the US Environmental Agency, and the port, are claimed by the BAAQMD to cut diesel emissions from the port’s drayage trucks by up to 85 percent. The combined funding, which will help truckers and trucking firms to offset some of the cost of the retrofit devices, will also be used to provide area motor carriers with partial offsets for the purchase of about 170 new trucks in the port drayage fleet.
The subsidy program follows last week’s approval by the Oakland port commission to ban pre-1994 model year trucks from servicing the port after Jan. 1, 2010. As part of the trucking restrictions, the port will also require that all 1994 to 2003 model year trucks—which make up nearly 80 percent of the 2,000-strong drayage fleet—must either be replaced with newer trucks or be retrofitted with diesel emission-capturing devices.
