Policy & Advocacy -- CAAP Emails

Email Port Authorities About the CAAP Truck Replacement Plan

On April 12, the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach unveiled the details of a truck replacement plan that is part of their Clean Air Action Plan (CAAP). (Read the summary plan and powerpoint presentation.)

In summary, the plan requires any trucking company desirous of doing business at the ports to "purchase" an operating "concession," directly from the port. In addition to the concession fee, which the ports say will be "nominal," a trucking company would have to meet a variety of port-imposed "standards," that would include emissions standards and a raft of other operational standards, including:

A requirement that the concessionaire operate at least 50 trucks, and
A requirement that the concessionaire employ the drivers directly.

Waterfront Coalition estimates are that this proposal will increase harbor drayage rates by about $250 per container. The Waterfront Coalition registered our opposition to this plan in a letter sent on May 21. And continues to press for an industry alternative that would include the development of a state-wide diesel emissions standards. (Click here to read the industry alternative.)

We urge shippers and affected freight stakeholders to communicate their opposition to this the ports' anti-competitive program. Below you will find a standard message on the CAAP truck replacement plan. Feel free to edit it to suit your own purposes. When you have the message the way you want it, fill out the form with your contact information and click submit. An email of your message will be sent to the following:

The port directors of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach,
The harbor commissions of the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach,
Mayor Bob Foster of Long Beach, and
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles.

Feel Free to Edit this message. Then fill out the contact info, and we'll format it with your name and email it to the ports and the cities of Long Beach and Los Angeles	I am emailing to lodge my concerns about the truck replacement plan recently announced by the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach. The proposed concession approach is not necessary for reducing diesel emissions related to harbor drayage trucks. Alternative proposals calling for a state-wide standard on truck emissions have been made by industry and others. These proposals will result in cleaner air without the additional costs and disruptions the concession plan would create. In particular the concession plan would use taxpayer bond money to pay for cleaner trucks. Using taxpayer money for this is not appropriate, especially since the bond money would be financed over thirty years, and the trucks in question have useful lives much shorter than that. Second, the concession approach appears to be about reducing competition, not reducing diesel emissions. Drivers and motor carriers who make their own investment in cleaner trucks would still be precluded from operating at the ports unless they purchased a concession. More important, truckers making their own private investment would be at a disadvantage to those who accept a taxpayer subsidy. Third, the proposal would limit concessions to those with more than 50 trucks. This would throw small exporters who run their own trucks out of business. It would concentrate the number of firms and reduce competition substantially, thereby driving up rates even higher than the cost of replacing the trucks. Finally, the proposal would be so expensive that it would divert cargo to other ports. Most troubling, the proposal will make new port development outside the United States more attractive. The ports and harbor commissions need to think carefully about how this proposal might end up causing the outsourcing of longshore, warehousing and trucking jobs to Mexico and Canada. I ask you to consider the industry-offered alternative of a state-wide standard on diesel trucks that would be paid for privately and which would not seek to limit competition at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Sincerely,
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