Daimler Delivers LNG Trucks To Port, Intermodal Carrier
By Howard S. Abramson, Editorial Director
This story appears in the Dec. 15 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.
LONG BEACH, Calif. — Executives of Daimler Trucks North America celebrated the official delivery of its first production-model heavy-duty trucks powered by liquefied natural gas here last week at the busiest port complex in North America.
About 50 of the white, day-cab tractors ringed a storage lot at the Port of Long Beach for the ceremony, making a total of 232 LNG trucks that Daimler has delivered.
Of that total, 132 have gone to California Cartage Co., a major drayage operator based here, and 100 to the Clean Truck Program operated by the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, which are separate, adjacent facilities.
The trucks, which cut emissions by about 90% compared with traditional diesel engines, are designed to help the ports reach their goals of substantially reducing emissions.
Chris Patterson, DTNA’s president, told the gathered officials and news media that the ceremony marked “a piece of environmental history” as the company delivered what he called “the cleanest commercial trucks available today” which produce “near-zero levels” of greenhouse gases.
Long Beach Mayor Robert Foster called the delivery of the vehicles “a dramatic thing,” part of the “remarkable achievement” of the two ports’ agreeing to a joint program to trim their overall emissions by 50% over the next five years.
The ports’ plans have sparked controversy because they banish trucks built before 1989 from the facilities and the Port of Los Angeles plan ends the ability of owner-operators to haul freight in and out of the port.
The ports have held off implementation of some of the provisions of their plan — which would have gone into effect on Oct. 1 — because of objections expressed by the Federal Maritime Commission, which has now filed suit to stop the program.
Trucking groups, including American Trucking Associations, also have filed suit against portions of the program relating to the restrictions on owner-operators.
The plan subsidizes the purchase of the more-expensive LNG trucks, financed by fees assessed on shippers who move freight containers through the ports. The new owners also received federal tax breaks for adopting the new technology.
The LNG models celebrated in the delivery cost around $130,000 each before taxes, compared with about $100,000 for a conventional model, DTNA officials said.
The trucks delivered were actually produced by Sterling Trucks, a brand DTNA recently announced it would close as a cost-cutting move during the current lean sales market. Daimler officials here said the Freightliner M2 model, built on the same chassis as the Sterling, would be available with LNG engines as a substitute.
The trucks DTNA has delivered are powered by 320-hp engines produced by Cummins-Westport, which converts Cummins ISL engines to run on LNG, a fuel derived from natural gas, cooled to a liquid and stored in the truck fuel tanks under pressure.
The fuel is substantially cheaper than conventional diesel — about 40% cheaper, DTNA officials said — and is touted by its supporters as a domestic substitute for imported crude oil.
Robert Curry, president of California Cartage, said his company purchased the 132 LNG trucks because “we want to be part of the solution, not the problem,” of emissions issues at the ports.
Mark Lambert, DTNA’s senior vice president of sales, said Daimler’s involvement in the ports’ Clean Truck Program was “awesome and humbling.” He said the ports handled about 8.5 million containers last year that moved through Los Angeles and Long Beach in 2007.
James Hinkle, president of the Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners, said the emissions program was leading some shippers to shift their cargo to other ports, but he vowed that the board would not be deterred.
“We are the greenest ports in the world, and we expect to continue to be the cleanest ports in the world,” he said.
