This week I attended a workshop all about trucking, put on at the Reef Restaurant in Long Beach by the International Warehouse Logistics Association. Attendees heard from regulators, consultants to the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, clean truck technology providers, and other experts about the shifting business environment.
Indeed, the most dramatic message is that five years from now, port trucking (among other related industries) may little resemble its current state – or at least it will be well into a period of irrevocable transition. State and federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions – principally the CO2 emitted from sources like fuel combustion – is imminent, and will affect trucking operations both directly and indirectly. In fact, the state’s “scoping plan” for AB 32, California’s landmark greenhouse-gas law, is being released June 26 for public comment.
For example, California is pursuing a “low-carbon fuel standard” that will push trucking to use more biofuels and eventually hydrogen. Biofuels contain carbon, but it’s “above-ground” carbon, so it doesn’t add to the atmospheric burden of carbon as does extracting fossil fuels from underground. Hydrogen, of course, contains no carbon, though it has been said that it’s the fuel of the future – and always will be. (Personally, I think it’s a matter of economics and human ingenuity – as traditional fuels become more expensive, we will find ways to make hydrogen and other energy sources work.)
Closer to home, and closer to now, state and local port truck regulations are about to take effect, and they will pose immediate practical concerns for trucking companies serving the ports. It is an inescapable fact that the Port of Los Angeles will require companies that receive its concessions to phase in employee drivers, up to 100% in the next five years, while Long Beach will not. If these parallel programs are implemented, in five years a contract truck driver will not be able to drive from Hanjin (a terminal in Long Beach) to Maersk (on the LA side) – a division one attendee referred to as a “new Berlin wall.”
Both the state and the ports are making a great deal of funding available to truck owners to assist in the transition to trucks that meet current (2007) new-engine standards. The state funding, from bonds approved by voters in 2006 as part of Proposition 1B, comes with some significant conditions: for example, trucks receiving this funding must operate entirely within California, and fifty percent within its four key trade corridors (Los Angeles-Inland Empire, San Joaquin Valley, Bay Area, and San Diego-Border). Additional port funds will come from dirty truck fees, to be collected beginning in October.
Adding to the uncertain atmosphere for trucking companies, the American Trucking Associations, it was announced, will be filing suit in mid-July over the employee-driver requirement. If this action should result in an injunction against part or all of the ports’ Clean Truck Program, it’s unclear whether the desired rapid turnover of the truck fleet will proceed. Of course, I join the port consultants in the hope they expressed that the truck replacements will go on unimpeded. This reduction in port-related pollution is too important to wait for.
Should you still be hungry for more information, you can find an enlightening side-by-side comparison of the port truck programs and all the conference presentations online here.