SoCal terminal operators: Ports? truck plan not ready for Oct. 1

SoCal terminal operators: PortsÆ truck plan not ready for Oct. 1 Southern California marine terminal operators have warned Long Beach and Los Angeles port officials for the second time in as many weeks that starting the ports' trucking re-regulation plan on Oct. 1 may undermine the success of two key components of the plan and threaten the stability of port operations.
   'The long-term credibility and effectiveness of the truck ban and fee collection program will be undermined if it is implemented in an incomplete and untested fashion,' said the terminal operators in a Sept. 10 letter to the presidents of the two ports' harbor commissions.
   The truck plan, a major component of the ports' omnibus Clean Air Action Plan to cut port-generated pollution, seeks to replace or retrofit nearly 17,000 short-haul diesel trucks within five years with newer, cleaner-burning models. Two key portions of the truck plan include the collection of a $35-per-TEU fee to pay for grants and subsidies covering the new trucks and a multiyear ban to eliminate older model year trucks in stages.
   More than dozen terminal operators, representing all of the ports' container terminals, also told port officials in the letter that the truck plan is not ready to start on Oct. 1, and an attempt to do so would undermine years of effort by the terminal operators to reduce truck emissions by smoothing terminal gate transactions.
   'Disruptions in truck access to terminals and terminal operations resulting from premature implementation of the ports' program will result in a significant increase in the emissions the CAAP is intended to eliminate,' the operators wrote.
   'Much of that difficulty, stems from things that the ports need to resolve and that are beyond the control of the terminal operators,' the letter said. The operators are concerned that the ports or their contractors have not completed a ports-wide computerized truck database, called the Drayage Truck Registry or DTR.
   'Since the DTR only became operational a few days ago, only now can the terminal operators work on and test the connectivity of their systems with the DTR. Absent a complete and reliably functioning DTR, implementation of the clean truck program is not feasible,' the operators said.
   The letter's authors also point to concerns covering contractual issues, sufficient outreach to the local shipper and trucker communities by the ports regarding the plan, and the ports' failure to complete key truck plan components.
   The operators demand in the letter that the ports delay the Oct. 1 start date and allow adequate time to develop, install and test the required technical systems to administer and operate the truck plan.
   Los Angeles port officials are to meet in a closed-door session Tuesday afternoon with nearly a half-dozen terminal operators to directly listen to the operators' concerns.
   On Sept. 3, the operators' West Coast Marine Terminal Operators Agreement group told the executive directors of both ports that collection of the truck plan's fee and an entry ban on pre-1989 model year trucks would be virtually impossible to implement by the Oct. 1 start date.
   WCMTOA secretary Bruce Wargo told the ports in the letter that extensive modification to the terminals' operations systems are still required before the truck plan can begin, and other items such as 'terminal and carrier Web pages, phone trees and carrier and terminal customer service representatives,' still need to be updated.
   In addition, wrote Wargo, the DTR 'will require extensive Internet modifications to PierPass, its vendors systems, equipment acquisition, report design and testing.'
   During a Sept. 11 public hearing on the truck plan, Port of Long Beach officials indicated that although they were aware of the Sept. 3 WCMTOA letter, they did not see it delaying the Oct. 1 start date of the truck plan. ' Keith Higginbotham