HTA announces new chassis pool

Harbor Trucking Association also received a grant that will expand its training program for truckers.    The Harbor Trucking Association has entered into a partnership to create an new chassis pool.
   The pool will start with 200 chassis based near the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and 50 based outside the Port of Oakland, and will grow with increased demand from HTA members. HTA represents more than 100 intermodal trucking companies operating more than 6,000 trucks in California’s ports.
   “The HTA Members Chassis Pool will create reliability and should help create faster turn-times for port truck drivers” said George Boyle, president of the HTA. He said it will “also create a more affordable option for trucking companies in need of chassis.”
   The association is partnering with the companies Trucker Chassis Connection, which provides intermodal equipment, and ChassisFinder.com, a chassis reservation exchange.
   Bill Knight of Trucker Chassis Connection said of the new pool, “By adding 250 chassis to ports on the West Coast – and delivering a seamless way to reserve them – we are helping resolve significant issues for truckers.”
   HTA also announced that a program to train new truck drivers has received a $220,000 grant from Jobs for the Future and the Walmart Foundation.
   Since 2013, the HTA has been partnering with Long Beach City College (LBCC) to address the truck driver shortage in the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. The program, which the HTA says is the first driver training program formed as a collaboration between an industry association and an academic institution, has resulted in the graduation of nearly 100 new truck drivers entering the industry.
   The 2-year grant will allow the college to expand a training program for harbor truck drivers, and a focus will be to recruit more women to join the local trucking workforce.
   LBCC will use the two-year grant to train 300 additional drivers in its driver training program.