Oakland Port: No Truck Ban Extension or Upgrade Funds

Bay Area air quality officials told port-servicing truck drivers attending the Port of Oakland public meeting Monday that there would be no extension of an impending ban on older trucks and no further funds to help the drivers retrofit their vehicles or buy new ones.

The port ban, which takes effect Jan. 1, is expected to bar about a 1,000 of the approximately 3,000 port-servicing trucks from entering the port terminals. Drivers have protested that the ban will essentially put them out of business. Adopted in October, the ban denies port access to all pre-1994 model year trucks and requires that 1994 to 2003 model year trucks install after-market particulate matter capture devices.

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District had established a $22 million fund last year that was being used to help drivers of 1994 to 2003 model year trucks to pay for the smokestack filters--each costing from $10,000 to $21,000. Drivers receiving the grants were only responsible for the sales tax on the retrofit filters.

The fund was also used by the air district to provide $50,000 grants toward the purchase of a new truck, with the remaining $50,000-plus price tag for a new trucks being borne by the drivers.

To date, the $22 million fund has paid for just over 190 new trucks and more than 800 particle filters, of which more than 600 remain to be installed.

Two weeks ago, the BAAQMD sent nearly 1,000 port-servicing drivers letters rejecting applications for grants because the BAAQMD fund was already depleted.

Air quality officials said the new rules were required to reduce diesel pollution that studies show have contributed to elevated cancer and asthma rates near the port.

Stockton Port Channel Gets Fed Funds for Dredging

Congress has allocated more than $11 million for water projects in San Joaquin County, including nearly $3.4 million for maintenance dredging of the Port of Stockton's Deep Water Channel.

Located about 75 miles east of San Francisco Bay, the Port of Stockton is only accessible through the channel, which as part of a delta requires periodic dredging.

"These funds are also an injection of much-needed capital in the local economy," Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton, said in a news release. "Our area needs the jobs that projects like these can help create and save."

Built in the early 1930s to a depth of 30 feet, the Deep Water Channel went through a major dredging project in the late 1980s, providing up to 70 feet of depth in some areas. The channel still ranges from 35 feet to 70 feet throughout its entire length. An Army Corps of Engineers study is under way of a $140 million plan to increase the minimum depth of the channel to 40 feet, thereby allowing much larger vessels to transit.

NOL's Widdows: Trans-Pac Rates Must Increase Soon

Despite trans-Pacific carriers unlikely to experience an excess of capacity for the next three to four years, cargo rates will go up in 2010 according to Ron Widdows, CEO and group president of Singapore-based NOL.

Widdows' comments came in a speech to a transportation conference in Irvine, Calif. sponsored by the Intermodal Association of North America, the National Industrial Transportation League and the Transportation Intermediaries Association.

Although carriers are attempting to draw down capacity as quickly as possible by cutting and combing services, said Widdows, the vast number of vessels on order could prevent a capacity balance until 2012 or 2013.

In the short term, however, rates will have to go up, Widdows told the attendees. He said that estimates suggest that carriers will lose up to $20 billion in 2009 and if rates do not increase soon and dramatically, some carriers could go out of business.

Seaman’s Service Awards Widdows, Kurz Highest Honor

The United Seamen’s Service’s 40th Annual Admiral of the Ocean Sea Award was presented Friday to Keystone Shipping Co. President and CEO Donald Kurz, and to Ronald Widdows, Group President and CEO of Neptune Orient Lines of Singapore, parent of American President Lines.

The annual AOTOS award is the most prestigious honor bestowed by the United Seaman's Service.

In presenting the award to Kurz, the group highlighted Keystone's role as one of the largest U.S.-flagged fleets and the nearly 100-year commitment of the Kurz family to the maritime industry.

The group cited Widdows' role as an innovator and out-spoken luminary of the shipping industry in presenting him with the award.

The event also honored the United States Coast Guard with a special Admiral of the Ocean Sea Award for its ongoing service to and role in the maritime community.

The United Seaman's Service, a non-profit agency established in 1942 that operates centers in eight foreign ports in Europe, Asia, and Africa and in the Indian Ocean, provides community services for the U.S. Merchant Marine, the American Armed Forces, and seafarers of the world. The agency also provides seagoing libraries to American vessels through its affiliate, the American Merchant Marine Library Association.

Truckers Protest SoCal Ports’ Impending Ban

As many as 400 truckers in big rigs clogged Southern California freeways Friday, before arriving in Downtown Los Angeles to blast their horns as they circled City Hall, all in protest of an impending ban by the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles of all trucks made before 1994.

The truckers, many of whom later rallied in front of City Hall on foot to express their ire at Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, called for an extension of the ban's Jan. 1, 2010 deadline, better funding for the replacement of trucks, and an investigation into the ports' Clean Trucks Program.

The ports' program, which seeks to dramatically cut diesel emissions from thousands of ports-servicing trucks by 2012, relies heavily on several scheduled bans of certain model year trucks to achieve the air quality goals. Trucks, trains, ships and yard handling equipment at the adjacent ports, known as the San Pedro port complex, have been identified as the largest single-point generator of certain air pollutants in the Los Angeles area, accounting for about 20 percent of the total diesel emissions for the Southern California basin.

Older trucks, according to the ports, produce much greater pollution than newer 2007-or-later model year trucks. The truck program started last October with a ban of more than 2,200 pre-1989 model year trucks. The impending ban on pre-1994 truck models also covers all 1994 to 2003 model year trucks that have not been retrofitted with pollution control devices.

Many of the protesting truck drivers, who operate as independent contractors servicing the ports, said that tens of millions in grant monies handled under the auspices of the truck program have found their way to large trucking companies and not to the individual drivers or small trucking firms which make up the largest percentage of ports-serving trucking companies.

The drivers said that the new ban could put many of them out of business when you consider than a retrofit costs upwards of $20,000 and a new truck costs more than $100,000.

While the truck program was jointly developed at its outset by the two ports, each have adopted differing language during the ramp up to implementation last year. Port of Los Angeles officials have stuck to version that calls for all drivers wishing to enter the port to drop their independent contractor status and work for trucking firms as hourly employees. The neighboring Port of Long Beach has not included any restrictions on employment status of drivers in its version of the program.

The American Trucking Associations, which filed suit against both ports’ programs late last year, recently settled with Long Beach officials, removing the Port of Long Beach from the ongoing litigation. The settlement removed several aspects of the Long Beach program to which the ATA took exception, while allowing the port to maintain environmental, safety and security control over which trucks enter the port's facilities.

The Port of Los Angeles is scheduled to face off against the ATA in a Los Angeles federal court in March 2010.

CKYH Alliance to Cut Boxship Speeds

Chinese shipping giant COSCO, in conjunction with its CKYH alliance partners “K” Line, Yang Ming and Hanjin, said the alliance plans to shift 50 percent of its collective fleet to 'super slow steaming.

In making the announcement Friday at the World Shipping Summit in Quingdao COSCO CEO and President Captain Wei Jiafu cited control costs, fuel savings, and control of greenhouse emissions as the primary reasons for the allliance taking the step. Members of the alliance have all been hit with substantial losses in the fiscal quarter ending Sept. 30. COSCO reported revenues fell 52 percent to $2.3 billion in the third quarter, "K" Line reported a net loss of $514 million on revenues of $2.35 billion, Yang Ming reported traffic volumes down 30 percent, and Hanjin on Thursday reported a net loss for the quarter of $338 million on revenues of $1.44 billion.

Captain Jiafu said that the alliance is welcoming other shipping lines to join in the move.

Maersk Parent Sees $1 Billion In Losses By Year's End

Danish shipping giant A.P. Moller-Maersk, parent of shipping line Maersk, pointed to a 31.7 percent drop in container shipping revenues and falling cargo rates for a $706 million loss in the first nine months of the year and said it projects losing more than $1 billion by year's end.

CEO Nils Smedegaard told analysts that the main problem in the industry remains rates, which while edging up slightly in recent months, are still well below rates at the start of the year. He also said that rates are not recovering as quickly as bunker fuel prices are increasing and when fuel prices are factored out, rates still remain below levels at the start of the year.

Despite seeing volumes and rates increase in the third quarter, A.P. Moller-Maersk reported a $163 million loss in its container shipping operations during the first nine months of the year, with container volumes off 5.6 percent compared to the first nine months of last year.

Revenue from container shipping operations fell to $15 billion for the first nine months of the year and total A.P. Moller-Maersk revenues were off 25 percent from the year-ago period to $35.5 billion.