Truckers find loophole in clean truck programs
A growing number of trucking companies have found a loophole in the clean truck programs implemented by the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
They are using Class 7 two-axle tractors to shuttle empty and light containers to and from marine terminals, skirting the clean truck rules that apply to heavier three-axle Class 8 tractors.
Spokesmen from both ports confirmed a report in the Los Angeles Business Journal that the number of Class 7 tractors registered to work at the two ports has jumped from 28 in January to about 500. It’s assumed the same tractors have registered to work in both ports.
While that sounds like a dramatic increase, the Class 7 tractors are actually doing relatively few moves — about 2.5 percent of all gate moves at the port, said Phillip Sanfield, a Los Angeles port spokesman. Ninty-three percent of all moves are now made by “clean trucks” built in 2007 or later, he added.
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is meeting in December to consider including Class 7 trucks in phase out requirements, and Sanfield and Lee Peterson, a spokesman for the Port of Long Beach, said the ports are looking to address the same issue once CARB takes action.
Curtis Whalen, executive director of the American Trucking Associations’ Intermodal Motor Carriers Conference, said he expected many of his members, who have invested heavily in new, cleaner drayage trucks to meet the clean air requirements of the port, would be very unhappy if other companies are skirting the rules by using the lighter Class 7 tractors.