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CLEAN TRUCKS PROGRAM * USA - Truckers Deflated by Clean Air Program
Cost of clean trucks hits as work at ports dries up
Los Angeles,CAL,USA -The Los Angeles Business Journal, by FRANCISCO VARA-ORTA -18 May 2009: -- Jackie Mattare has been in the trucking industry for nearly two decades at the giant San Pedro port complex, and he’s never been through such tough times... Mattare’s Desert Express specializes in transporting extra-heavy cargo for importers such as the Dutch brewer Heineken – a great business before imports shrunk this year... Then there’s the ports’ Clean Truck Program, which is forcing him to replace his old trucks with new ones at a cost to his company of $2.5 million or more... It looks like Mattare could have lots of company. The once eye-popping numbers of trucks and trucking companies appear to be shrinking at the ports... The irony is that Desert Express is the type of firm expected to fare better than many in the ports’ crackdown on diesel pollution. That’s because the company is one of the relatively few that employs truck drivers instead of contracting with independent owner-operators... The L.A. port has sought to ban owner-operators on the grounds they would be harder to regulate and unable to properly service their new rigs... But as it turns out, the stresses of the recession are causing even trucking firms that employ drivers to struggle... The Port of Long Beach last week reported April traffic that was 27 percent below the same month last year... So far it’s hard to exactly determine how the port trucking industry is faring...
Labels: Clean Trucks Program
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