L.A. Port to Give Drivers Cleaner-Burning Trucks

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he Port of Los Angeles is working out a plan to give the owners of older drayage trucks new Class 8 vehicles that run on liquefied or compressed natural gas, port officials said.

The port has about $20 million in its current fiscal year budget to buy the new trucks and offer new cleaner-burning equipment to its dockside tenants to replace older, diesel-powered forklifts and other vehicles, port officials said.

“The plan is to replace [drayage drivers’] older trucks with brand-new LNG trucks at our cost. The new truck would be free to the owner-operators,” Theresa Lopez, a port spokeswoman, told Transport Topics.

The port has been criticized by area residents and state and federal environmental officials for generating large quantities of diesel fumes from the hundreds of drayage trucks and port vehicles operating there.

For the full story, see the Oct. 24 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.