Older Trucks at LA/LB Ports Retired Ahead of Schedule

The retirement of older diesel trucks is happening quicker than expected at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach with private capital, not government grants, paying for most of the conversion, said the Cunningham Report.

What's emerging is a situation in which already, more than one-third of the drayage fleet serving the harbor is eligible to call at the ports after 2012. At the same time, the ports are paying about one fourth of what they had anticipated for the program so far (Cunningham Report, June, 15, 2009).

As reported last week, the environmental benefits of Clean Trucks Programs at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are ahead of schedule. Port officials indicated that the goal of reducing truck pollution in the harbor by 80 percent in 5 years may be reached by year's end, without the concession requirements that a federal judge enjoined from the Clean Trucks programs.

The American Trucking Associations sued over the concession plans but supports the environmental cleanup via the retirement of older diesel trucks. Unions, political allies, and environmental groups argued that concession requirements, most notably one that banned independent owner-operators from the Port of Los Angeles, were necessary to achieve environmental benefits. The owner-operator ban was specifically drafted to make it easier to unionize port truck drivers.

The quicker-than-expected retirement of older diesel trucks shows once again how wrong unions, political allies, and environmental groups were as they defended these concessions that illegally regulated commerce at the Ports.

Past Statements

"So if ATA knocks out the concession agreements, container fees stop flowing to trucking companies and the truck fleet will stay dirty.  It's just too expensive for the truck drivers to buy new, $150,000 trucks on their own," wrote the NRDC.

FALSE, as reported, more than one-third of the truck fleet at the Ports has already met 2007 emission standards, and Port officials indicated that the goal of reducing truck pollution in the harbor by 80 percent in 5 years may be reached by the end of 2009.

"ATA knows well that this phase-out will not happen if there are no container fees to pay for it.  So what's happening is that ATA is using the Ninth Circuit decision to play 'chicken' with the ports, betting that the ports will back down and give container fee money away to anyone without requiring anything in return.  Does this remind you of AIG's bailout strategy:  take public money but disclaim any responsibility to the taxpayers," wrote the NRDC.

FALSE, ATA never challenged container fees and they are currently being collected. But more than one-third of the drayage fleet has already become compliant with Clean Trucks Programs emission standards, primarily using private money, not government grants funded by container fees.

In addition, the NRDC's statement that "ports will back down and give container fee money away to anyone without requiring anything in return," is far from reality.

Whether using private money or government grants, ALL trucks in the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are required to meet 2007 engine emission standards by 2012 through the purchase of a new truck or retrofitting older models. As the ATA lawsuit stated, concession requirements such as the "employee mandate," drafted to make it easier to unionize port truck drivers, have nothing to do with the environment.

The removal of these concession requirements has not affected the progress of the Clean Trucks Programs. If this debate was solely about cleaning the air, environmental progress from the trucking industry should find praise from groups that stand for that goal.

Right now, officials at the Port of Oakland are ready to adopt a clean trucks plan there that does not have the most onerous requirements of the Los Angeles and Long Beach programs. The same villains from the Los Angeles and Long Beach controversies - union bosses and so-called environmental groups that do the unions' bidding - are pushing the Port of Oakland to adopt a ban on owner-operators.

The success of the Los Angeles and Long Beach clean truck programs without their onerous concession plans is proof that the best way to clean the air in Oakland is to ignore the unions and adopt a clean truck program that does not put owner-operators out of business and out of work.