J.C. Penney, Pacer subsidiary join ?green truck? coalition

J.C. Penney, Pacer subsidiary join ôgreen truckö coalition A leading U.S. retailer and its Southern California drayage contractor have jointly pledged to replace all of their diesel trucks servicing the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles with newer, less emissive versions within two years.
   Plano, Texas-based J.C. Penney Corp. and Compton, Calif.-based PDS Trucking, also said Tuesday they have joined the Sacramento-based Coalition for Responsible Transportation, an association of transportation firms pledging to implement clean truck technologies in their operations at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
   PDS, a subsidiary of the Concord, Calif.-based Pacer International, and J.C. Penney plan to replace all of their contracted owner-operator trucks in use at the two ports with new low-emission 'green' equipment that will meet the ports' self-defined emission standards well before the ports-defined 2012 deadline.
   To replace the vehicles, both firms have committed to financing arrangements that will allow owner-operators to use the new trucks while preserving their ability to remain as independent drivers. Last November, the two ports adopted an omnibus Clean Air Action Plan which included a component plan to cut truck emissions by replacing the entire drayage fleet of nearly 17,000 trucks that service the ports.
   On Monday, the Port of Long Beach harbor commission approved a second step in their overall truck re-regulation plan, imposing a $35-per-TEU tax on each loaded container that will move in and out the port after June 1, 2008. Officials at the neighboring Los Angeles port are expected to approve a similar tax Thursday.
   Earlier this month, the governing commissions of both ports adopted the first portion of the truck plan, implementing a progressive ban of older trucks servicing the ports.
   J.C. Penney and PDS are the latest members of a CRT roster that now includes Home Depot, California Multimodal Inc., NYK Group Cos., the Target Corp., Total Transportation Services Inc., Nike, and Southern Counties Express Inc.
   In October, Nike, and its affiliate Converse switched a portion of their Southern California ports drayage fleet from diesel to new liquefied natural gas-fueled vehicles.
   A month earlier, Target Corp. said it would introduce LNG vehicles into its fleet servicing the two ports. ' Keith Higginbotham