While the air at the Port of Los Angeles is cleaner, the owners of than two-thirds of the 2,200 drayage trucks purchased with $20,000 in port emissions reduction incentive grants face financial penalties because their trucks will not make the required minimum 300 gate moves during their first year of operation, port officials said.
Nearly one in five of the port-funded trucks have not made a single gate move in the first eight months of operation.
Under the terms of the contract with the port, the carriers must pay back the port $4,000 for each truck that does not make the minimum trips to pick up or deliver freight.
The port could assess the truckers $4,000 for each of five years that the drayage operator’s trucks do not do at least 300 trips.
Although many of the motor carriers have not lived up to their contractual obligations, Los Angeles port commissioners said at a meeting earlier this month that they will considering softening the requirement after drayage operators complained that the recession had made the targeted number of trips “nearly impossible” to reach.
By Eric Miller
Staff Reporter
