Watch Now


Truck replacement incentive, volumes rise in Charleston

   The South Carolina Ports Authority said it is doubling, to $10,000, the financial incentive for local truck drivers who shuttle containers in and out of the Port of Charleston to replace old, polluting trucks with ones made since 2004.
   The port launched its voluntary truck-replacement program last fall, offering $5,000 towards the purchase of a newer truck to frequent port users driving pre-1994 vehicles. Removing the old trucks is a priority for many ports around the nation because they emit many times more fine particulate matter, nitrogen oxide and sulfur oxide than newer model vehicles. Fine particulate matter can get trapped in lungs and cause respiratory and other health problems, including premature death.
   The 2004 model-year diesel engines are not as clean as 2007 and 2010 engines that must meet U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards and burn ultra-low sulfur fuel.
   The increase in financial aid is an apparent attempt to speed up turnover of the port’s most polluting trucks. The port authority’s first-year goal is to eliminate 100 of the oldest tractors from the regular drayage fleet, but so far only 24 trucks have been replaced.
   Under South Carolina’s Seaport Truck Air Cleanup Southeast, or STACS, program, eligible truckers also can claim the scrap value of their old truck.
   The port authority said it will set up a mobile office at the Wando Welch Terminal once a week to provide information to independent truckers about the fuel efficiency, maintenance and environmental benefits of upgrading their tractors.
   The STACS program has $500,000 available in the first year, with funding coming from the SCPA and the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control through an EPA grant.
   It is being administered by Cascade Sierra Solutions, a non-profit group based in Eugene, Ore., that manages similar programs in several West Coast ports.
   According to a survey commissioned by the South Carolina Ports Authority, about 2 percent, or 260, of the 13,000 trucks that serve the Port of Charleston are 1993 or older model years. The core drayage fleet that operates at the port on a weekly basis is about 2,600 trucks. The oldest trucks are frequent users and represent 10 percent of the core fleet.
   The U.S. Federal Maritime Commission on Wednesday held a forum in Washington to learn about clean-truck programs and other environmental initiatives at six major ports across the country.
   (An overview of how ports are greening their drayage fleets, “Driving away dirty drayage,” was published in the March issue of American Shipper.)
   Meanwhile, container volumes in the Port of Charleston grew 12 percent in March from the prior year to 134,857 TEUs, the strongest month for containerized traffic at the port since October 2008, the port authority announced.
   For the fiscal year to date (July through March), the volume of standard shipping units was up slightly more than 2 percent. Container volume for the third quarter increased 7 percent from the same period last year. A new European service from carrier APL is one of the reasons for the higher throughput, the port authority said.
   Charleston also experienced a 53 percent gain in non-containerized freight, led by autos, to 111,236 pier tons versus March 2010. — Eric Kulisch