Tuesday, July 19, 2011

TTSI Makes Commitment To Hydrogen Drayage Fleet

Rancho Dominguez, California-based logistics firm Total Transportation Services, Inc. has signed a letter of intent with alternative fuel truck maker Vision Industries Corp. to purchase one hundred zero emission hydrogen fuel cell-electric class 8 heavy-duty trucks for drayage use in the Southern California ports.

The $27 million purchase would follow on a successful trial of an initial Vision fuel-cell truck, which is set to be delivered to TTSI on July 22.

The letter of intent also includes option language allowing TTSI to purchase an additional three hundred Vision trucks, bringing the total potential value of a TTSI sales contract to approximately $108 million.

"We are pleased to see such demand from a trucking company of TTSI's caliber," Vision Industries Corp. CEO Martin Schuermann said. "It underlines our assumptions that there are multiple commercial applications for our hydrogen powered zero emission big rigs in today's trucking industry."

TTSI will test the initial Vision Tyrano zero emission truck in commercial revenue service, performing typical drayage operations, hauling freight containers from port terminals in the Long Beach and Los Angeles ports to rail yards and other distribution facilities.

"Up and above the benefit of zero emissions, we at TTSI feel that this fuel format is the only true way to break our dependence on imported fuel," TTSI president Vic La Rosa said. "Hydrogen is the most abundant resource on the planet."

The initial Vision truck to be tested by TTSI is part of a project funded jointly by Vision and the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles through the two port' Technology Advancement Program.

TTSI, a vocal proponent of green transportation in the Southern California drayage community, has in the past invested in other forms of clean fuel trucks, including the 2009 replacement/conversion of its entire fleet of more than 100 trucks to clean diesel and liquefied natural gas.