Long Beach: Injunction spares port’s truck plan

Long Beach: Injunction spares portÆs truck plan    The Port of Long Beach clarified Wednesday that its Clean Trucks Program was largely unaffected by a preliminary decision Monday by Federal Court Judge Christina Snyder to prevent the Port of Los Angeles from requiring that port truckers be employees rather than independent operators.
   Long Beach said in a statement that its version of the clean trucks plan contains no such provision.
   “While key elements of Long Beach's Clean Trucks Program were left intact by Judge Snyder’s ruling, she enjoined the employee driver mandate in the Port of Los Angeles truck program — a requirement that does not exist in Long Beach’s program,” the port said.
   “With Judge Snyder’s ruling, the central, most important elements of the Port of Long Beach Clean Trucks Program are intact,” said Executive Director Richard Steinke. “We are still banning older trucks and collecting the Clean Truck Fee to fund replacement trucks.”
   Long Beach’s concession program requires trucking companies and operators to sign a contract to upgrade certain safety and environmental aspects of their vehicles. The port’s goal is to significantly reduce emissions from harbor trucks by 2012, primarily by requiring the phasing out of trucks older than 2006 by that year. Currently, trucks older than 1988 aren’t allowed in container terminals.