Most stevedoring companies – the outfits that unload cargo ships – are big worldwide firms or subsidiaries of global shipping companies.

But a new firm, headquartered in Long Beach, is trying to break into the market. APS Stevedoring LLC became a company Oct. 1 and, later that month, unloaded its first ship at the Port of Richmond in Northern California.

The company specializes in handling car-carrying ships and now unloads Hondas and Subarus for Auto Warehousing Co., a Tacoma, Wash., company that processes imported autos.

APS President John Hering, who formerly worked for Jones Stevedoring Co. of Seattle and New Jersey-based terminal operator Ports America, said APS will always be a small niche player but is looking to expand beyond Richmond and unloading cars.

“We’ll look for break-bulk opportunities and take opportunities when they present themselves,” he said.

Hering is looking to expand into another port in the Pacific Northwest, though he declined to give specifics.

APS has just three full-time employees, as well as 10 part-timers who supervise longshore workers during ship-unloading operations.

The company has no plans to operate at local ports, but Hering said the company set up shop in Southern California because the region is home to offices of most West Coast shippers.

Final Truck Ban

On the night of Sept. 30, 2008, just hours before the landmark Clean Truck Program was set to ban trucks made before 1989 at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, L.A. port Executive Director Geraldine Knatz was worried truckers wouldn’t play along.

She spent a few hours driving around the port, looking for trucks bearing stickers indicating program compliance.

“I remember being mortified that there weren’t that many stickers,” Knatz said. But the next day, about 80 percent of the trucks at the port were in line with the program.

On Jan. 1, the program’s final ban goes into effect, prohibiting trucks that don’t meet 2007 federal emissions standards from entering the port. Only about 280 of the nearly 10,000 cargo-hauling trucks at the ports will have to stop operating.

“I think we’re amazed at how successful it was early on,” Knatz said.

Staff reporter James Rufus Koren can be reached at [email protected] or at (323) 549-5225, ext. 225.