Port of NY/NJ begins next phase of truck replacement program

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey will use a $2 million federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement grant to help truckers cover up to 50 percent of the replacement truck’s cost.    The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey on Tuesday initiated the next phase of its Truck Replacement Program to provide truckers who regularly call on the port’s terminals with financial incentives to replace their older trucks with cleaner units.
   The truck replacements have already reduced pollutants from its terminals by as much as 33 percent, according to the port authority.
   The port authority will use a $2 million federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement grant to help truckers cover up to 50 percent – up to a maximum of $25,000 per truck – of the cost of buying a replacement truck with a model year 2007 or newer engine.
   “The grant money will provide enough funding to cover the purchase of 80 trucks,” the authority said in a statement.
   “The 80 newer trucks are projected to result in emission reductions of approximately 42 tons of particulate matter and 708 tons of nitrogen oxides over the lives of the replacement vehicles. This program, combined with others previously instituted in the port, have resulted in an average 33 percent reduction across all port-related pollutant emissions, despite a 7 percent increase in port cargo over the same period between 2006 and 2013,” it added.
   To qualify for the program, recipients must already own or lease a truck with a model year 1994-to-2006 engine and call on the port authority’s marine terminals at least 150 times a year. Funding is available on a “first-come, first-served basis with priority on replacing older, heavy emitting trucks first, specifically trucks with 1994 through 1997 engines,” the port authority said, and is dependent on an agreement to scrap of the older truck as well.
   The port authority will implement similar grant programs to replace aging trucks with an additional $7 million in federal grant money that it expects to receive over the next two years, and with $200,000 from its own funds. The agency said it’s also working with financial institutions to find ways to create low-interest loans for truckers seeking to purchase newer rigs. 
   Since the program began in 2010, the New York/New Jersey port authority has helped replace 429 older trucks with newer models.
   “The program has resulted in an estimated annual emission reductions of 356 tons of nitrogen oxide and 14 tons of fine particulate matter, which represent roughly 70 and 64 percent reductions respectively in both pollutants,” the port authority said.