The Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners postponed a vote Monday on setting a timeline to implement a controversial plan to replace the ports’ oldest and most-polluting trucks.

The board delayed the vote with little comment at its weekly meeting, but later the port issued a press release saying that it wanted to reconcile its proposed timeline with one that Los Angeles port officials are set to consider on Thursday.

As part of their joint Clean Air Action Plan, the ports in April released a $1.8 billion proposal that would replace or retrofit virtually all of the roughly 16,000 short-haul drayage trucks that carry cargo locally, reducing truck emissions by 80 percent.

The Long Beach port last week unveiled a plan that would start in October of 2008 and restrict port access to all rigs manufactured before 1989 and ban all trucks that do not meet 2007 emissions standards by 2014.

Los Angeles port officials released a very similar proposal late last week, but moved up the ban for trucks not meeting the 2007 emission standards to 2012.

No new vote date was announced by the Long Beach port commissioners.

The truck ban at both ports has met with fierce opposition by the trucking industry, which has particularly objected to a requirement that would make the now largely independent drivers employees of motor carriers.