As of Jan. 1, drayage trucks with engines that were built prior to 2007 will be barred from service that the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex. The ban is one of the last steps in the ports’ Clean Trucks Program, which has progressively barred older, more polluting trucks over the past three years.
The first ban was enacted Oct. 1, 2008, barring trucks with 1988 or older engines. On Jan. 1, 2010, the ports banned 1993 and older trucks. The final ban is expected to take about 280 container trucks off port roads.
LA and Long Beach both estimate that 98 percent of trucked container moves at the port complex are currently performed by rigs with 2007 or newer engines.
As of the start of the 2012, all 11,000 drayage trucks servicing the two ports will be 2007 or newer models. Also, an additional 800 older non-container trucks will be purged from the ports’ drayage registries and barred from doing business at the ports, according to the Port of Long Beach.
“We helped replace more than 10,000 pollution spewing trucks with newer, less polluting ones and the bottom line is that our communities can breathe better,” Long Beach Harbor Commission President Susan E. Andersen Wise said in a statement. “Everyone at the port can be proud of this accomplishment and we are grateful to all our partners in the trucking industry and the environmental community who helped us get here.”
Thursday, December 15, 2011
