Clean Trucks Fees Begin
After several delays, the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach plan to start collecting a new fee on cargo containers coming through the two seaports.
The Clean Trucks Fee, which charges $70 per 40-foot cargo container coming in and out of the ports, will go into effect on Feb. 18.
Cargo owners won’t be able to take possession of their cargo until the fees are paid. The ports hope to raise as much as $1 million a day for a total of $1.8 billion to help trucking companies buy trucks whose engines pollute less.
The fee was supposed to go into effect in November but was delayed twice as the Federal Maritime Commission reviewed a new electronic-gate access system called PortCheck that will help collect the new fees.
The FMC has also filed a lawsuit to block parts of the Clean Trucks Program that allow only drivers employed by trucking companies to call at the ports. The FMC believes this is anti-competitive. In the past, independent truckers have transported the majority of the port’s cargo.
In addition, the American Trucking Associations has legally challenged the full-time-trucker requirement. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is scheduled to hear oral arguments on March 4 in the ATA’s request for a preliminary injunction against part of the ports’ clean-trucks plan.
The ports started their Clean Trucks Program Oct. 1, 2008, banning trucks made before 1989. On Jan. 1, 2010, the ports will prohibit trucks made before 1994. By 2012, all rigs made before 2007 will be banned. The idea is to reduce diesel truck pollution by 80 percent by 2012. —Deborah Belgum
