East Coast Ports Set Grants to Purchase Newer Trucks

This story appears in the June 6 print edition of Transport Topics.

The clean-truck programs that began at West Coast ports are moving to the East Coast, as evidenced by grant awards this month to drayage truckers in the mid-Atlantic region who want to buy newer models.

The mid-Atlantic program, which includes Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Delaware, is backed by $3.3 million from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said Joanne Throwe, director of a University of Maryland program that’s managing the award process. She told Transport Topics that the first awards of $15,000 each will be given to truckers this month to use as down payments.

Like the West Coast port programs, the intent is to get old trucks — some with as many as 2 million miles of service — off the road to improve air quality.

“This is such a great opportunity,” said Throwe, director of the university’s Environmental Finance Center. “The hope is to leverage that EPA money to engage ports, state agencies and shippers and, hopefully, double that amount. We are hoping to bring in 2007-or-newer trucks to replace the older ones.”

The program covers the Virginia Port Authority — which includes Norfolk and Hampton Roads — as well as the Port of Baltimore, the Port of Philadelphia and the Port of Wilmington, Del.

Currently, Throwe said, 25 applications are in the final stage of approval, and those initial awards are concentrated in Virginia, where a waiting list of about 150 applicants already exists.

The Port of Baltimore has a waiting list of 80 trucks that weren’t updated because a state-funded program ran out of money.

EPA awarded the $3.3 million to the Mid-Atlantic Regional Air Management Association, which selected the Environmental Finance Center to create and monitor the application process, with the goal of taking as many 1998 or older trucks as possible off the road. If the federal funds are doubled, there will be enough money to replace 440 trucks.

“We are trying to build a voluntary program, which means connecting with financing options,” Throwe said. To accomplish that, agreements with four financial institutions are being made final. The intent is to offer a lower interest rate that will make a newer truck affordable, she said.

She declined to name the potential lenders since negotiations haven’t been completed.

In the West, the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach Clean Trucks Program has moved forward faster than expected toward the goal of reducing emissions by 80% over a five-year period that ends next year.

The mid-Atlantic award process includes gathering information about the fleet or individual owner-operator — such as ownership, registration and insurance data — as well as obtaining a promise to scrap the truck, she said.

For Virginia, the new effort — the Mid-Atlantic Dray Truck Replacement Program — is assuming a role the state-owned Virginia Port Authority began late in 2009, said Heather Wood, its director of environmental affairs.

Wood said Virginia officials hope to supplement the mid-Atlantic program by convincing shippers to participate in a program that pays higher rates to drayage operators so they can afford newer trucks.

In Virginia, about one-third of the 2,400 drayage trucks are 1998 models or older, Wood said.

Virginia already has taken 214 of the oldest drayage trucks off the road, she said, through grants of $15,000 for a newer truck or $6,000 for a retrofit.

“I am really hoping to hit 400 by the end of the year,” she said.

Virginia already has committed $300,000 to the goal of raising $3.3 million to match the EPA grant.

Mid-Atlantic program operators also have created a sponsorship approach that will give those who contribute priority in obtaining funding. For example, a $30,000 contribution brings with it 10 priority spots in the award process, Throwe said