A growing number of freight carriers have found a loophole in the Southern California ports’ Clean Truck Program big enough to … well, drive a truck through.
In fact, hundreds of them.
Old, fume-spewing diesel trucks are ferrying empty shipping containers back to the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, skirting stringent clean-air emissions standards imposed in 2008.
The carriers have seized on a loophole in the program that closely regulates the common three-axle, so-called Class 8 tractors that carry up to 80,000 pounds – or a fully loaded shipping container – but failed to regulate smaller Class 7 two-axle tractors capable of hauling empty or lightly filled containers.
So, more truckers are using the old small trucks, but only to return empty containers. The practice saves the companies money, but port officials and environmentalists say it violates the spirit of the rules. It even angers competitors who have spent millions upgrading fleets.
“I’m not a happy camper,” said Robert Curry, president of California Cartage Co. LLC, a Long Beach-based freight carrier that operates hundreds of trucks in both ports and recently spent $40 million overhauling its fleet. “Why do we have a clean air program if we’re going to allow something like this? It’s hypocritical. You may as well let everyone do it and forget about clean air.”
The numbers tell the story.
Since January, the number of Class 7 trucks registered to work at the Port of Los Angeles has jumped from just 28 to more than 500. The numbers are comparable for the Port of Long Beach – 28 to 480 – at which many of the same trucks call. While the unregulated lighter trucks are still responsible for only about 2.5 percent of gate calls at the ports, that’s a fivefold increase since the beginning of the year.
“The number of offenders is growing,” said Chris Cannon, director of the environmental management division at the Port of Los Angeles.
In any given month, more than 500,000 containers pass through both ports, most of them filled with imports from China. Some of them are relatively lightweight. And many, after being unloaded of their contents at warehouses throughout the region, are returned empty for a trip back to Asia.
Neither port plans to immediately amend its Clean Air Program. Instead they are waiting for action by the California Air Resources Board, which is set to discuss the matter Dec. 16. The board will consider a staff recommendation that state emission standards be amended to include Class 7 trucks.
Any changes made to emission standards will apply to all ports statewide, said board spokeswoman Karen Caesar.
“It’s something we’re working on. It’s a growing issue,” Caesar said. “It undermines community health, and it’s bad for the companies that spent money to comply.”
‘No need to regulate’
The loophole was unintentionally created, Cannon said, because most containers passing through the ports weigh at least 30,000 pounds, and are moved by Class 8 trucks. So two years ago when the ports, under pressure from labor, community and environmental groups, created the Clean Trucks Program, their focus was on Class 8.
“There was so little Class 7 activity that the state Air Resources Board felt no need to regulate them, and we patterned our standards on that,” Cannon said.
Lots of problems have ensued.
The Clean Air Program requires all Class 8 big rigs doing business in the ports to meet 2007 federal emissions standards by 2012. Since the program was adopted two years ago, about 7,000 new and clean-burning Class 8 trucks are operating at both ports. By contrast, the average Class 7 trucks being used are 10 to 15 years old and are far from compliant with 2007 emissions standards.
Earlier this year, some companies discovered the loophole and began using the older trucks to haul back empty containers to the port.
Some companies claim that being able to use the cheaper trucks is the only thing that’s keeping them in business. While new emissions-compliant Class 8 trucks sell for $100,000 or more, they say, older Class 7 trucks cost about one-tenth that price. While insuring, maintaining and licensing the new trucks can run $1,400 a month, operating the lighter trucks costs about 25 percent less.
“The Class 7 trucks are a lot less expensive to get and cheaper to operate, because they don’t burn as much diesel and use four fewer tires,” said Bonny Tsang, general manager of East West Intermodal Transport Inc. in Monrovia, which operates eight trucks in the ports, half of which are Class 7.
“Nobody’s going to use a brand-new tractor to haul an empty container around,” he said. “Why should we spend up to $115,000 on a new vehicle to make a $50 run for a $5 profit? Without Class 7, we would have to close shop.”
Rene Edmunds is president of Advanced Logistics Management Inc. in Compton, which began using Class 7 trucks earlier this month. He said he may buy more if all goes well.
“I have lots of export customers who need to move empty containers,” said Edmunds, whose drivers pick up empty containers stored at the port and bring them to customers so they can be filled for export.
Expanding ban
Jessica Lass, a spokeswoman for the National Resources Defense Council, an environmental organization that fought for the controversial anti-emissions rules, criticized the carriers for taking advantage of the loophole.
“It’s a form of cheating,” she said. “This is an attempt to undermine the sustainability of the Clean Trucks Program.”
However, Matt Schrap, director of environmental affairs for the California Trucking Association, which counts 3,600 member firms, said the ports created a fiasco and “did this to themselves.”
While he acknowledged some of the association’s members are fuming after investing heavily in new clean trucks, he said many firms using Class 7 trucks are simply trying to stay in business during tough times.
“These standards have created a situation in which carriers can’t be blamed for following the law. It’s very frustrating when you’re a business in California trying to plan your future and they keep moving the goal line and hiding the ball,” Schrap said. “We need a level playing field.”
Indeed, the use of Class 7 trucks has become so prevalent that even companies committed to following the Clean Air Program are using them.
Tom Villardi is the chief executive of JMKC Express in Torrance, which operates 35 trucks. He’s also an executive board member of the Harbor Trucker Association, representing more than 100 drayage companies working both ports.
Until a month ago, JMKC operated only Class 8 trucks. But after one of his drivers quit to buy a Class 7 truck, Villardi did some homework and discovered the exemption. So he resurrected two Class 7 tractors that had been sitting idly in his yard even though he believes the loophole should be closed.
“I’m no better than the rest,” said Villardi, citing the economic advantages of operating the cheaper trucks. “It’s unfair to the big companies that spent fortunes on their new trucks and unfair to the Clean Trucks Program.
“If we don’t put a stop to it there will soon be 1,000 of them and next year 1,500,” he said. “This is in direct conflict with what the Clean Truck Program set out to do. They need to get off the road and go back to where they were parked.”
