Fee Removal Could Increase Costs to Shippers Importing & Exporting Thru L.A.

If you do international business and have used the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach for your importing and exporting, the title of a recent post from Pier Pass may sound exciting to you.

“Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to Discontinue Clean Truck Fee,” reads the title.

The Clean Truck Fee at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach is part of the Clean Truck Plan, a green initiative to lower port truck emissions. The Pier Pass post announces that the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach “will no longer be assessing a Clean Truck Fee on trucks with an engine year of 2006 and older.”

Fee gone means Universal Cargo’s great freight rate quotes will look even better, right? If possible.

Fewer fees mean less costs, right? In theory.

This fee gone should mean nothing but good news for international shippers, right? Not necessarily.

The post goes on to say, “Trucks with an engine year of 2006 and older will be banned from port marine terminals.” So trucking companies taking cargo to and from the ports could have extremely large costs in upgrading their trucks.

These costs to trucking companies could lead to an increase in trucking costs for shippers exporting and importing goods through Los Angeles.

Fortunately, it is not as though the trucking companies should be caught off guard by this. Pier Pass’ post was not out of the blue. The clean truck plan is part of the Clean Air Action Plan that was approved in November of 2006.

In fact, this is not even the first banning of trucks from the port terminals. A Port of Los Angeles blog reports, “October 1, 2008: All pre-1989 trucks were banned from entering the port.”

With years to plan and adjust for the costs, hopefully trucking companies have prepared for a smooth transition and we won’t see a sudden hike in prices.

The good news is the plan seems to be effective. According to the Port of Los Angeles blog mentioned above, “In its first year, the program reduced the rate of port truck emissions by an estimated 70 percent. When fully implemented in 2012, port truck emissions will be reduced by more than 80 percent.”

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