Monday, May 24, 2010
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Report: Many subsidized L.A. clean trucks not meeting trip requirement
Nearly 12 months into a program that paid dozens of trucking companies $44 million to upgrade vehicles serving the Port of Los Angeles, the vast majority of subsidized trucks have not made the minimum number of trips to the port.
In fact, port officials said this month, more than 390 of them have not visited even once.
And the biggest recipient – Swift Transportation Corp. of Phoenix – and two other Arizona trucking companies now face a boycott started by the city of Los Angeles that theoretically could excuse them from their obligations entirely. That would mean more than 16 million public dollars would be lost.
The plan began in 2008 when, under pressure from environmentalists to improve air quality, the port created the Clean Trucks Program requiring all trucking companies doing business there to aggressively reduce big rig emissions. The old fume-spewing diesel trucks were replaced with cleaner burning models, such as those fueled by clean diesel or liquefied natural gas.
Fearing there wouldn’t be enough low-emission trucks to go around, port officials went a step further. They committed $44 million in public funds as a financial incentive for truck companies to upgrade their vehicles, each of which can cost $150,000.
Specifically, each company participating in the program was given $20,000 for each low-emissions truck it bought. Each of those trucks was committed to make at least 300 pickups or deliveries annually at the Port of Los Angeles over the next five years. (The nearby Port of Long Beach also has a Clean Trucks Program, which is separately managed and has a different incentive program.)
All told, officials say, about 100 companies were given subsidies for some 2,100 trucks.
In all, 393 of the 2,100 subsidized trucks have not made a single call at the port.
Officials would not identify the companies that own those trucks.
Both the companies and the port characterize the main snag as the recession, which reduced port business 14 percent last year.
And they are quick to point out the apparent larger success of the Clean Trucks Program. Originally designed to achieve an 80 percent reduction in emissions by 2012, the program has nearly reached that goal now. A full two years before the deadline, about 90 percent of the trucks running in and out of the port are clean.
- Los Angeles Business Journal
For the full story: www.labusinessjournal.com
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