EPA, Port Push for Newer Trucks

The Environmental Protection Agency wants truckers to ditch their old, exhaust-belching semis to improve air quality at the nation’s ports.

The EPA is targeting dray trucks, the diesel semis that haul multiple loads daily from boats to storage yards. For example, port officials believe at least 250 dray trucks that service the S.C. State Ports Authority's Wando Welch Terminal are at least 17 years old, and are likely contributing to poor air quality.

“By helping the trucks that service our ports become cleaner, we can make the air in and around our nation’s ports – and that the truckers themselves breathe – healthier for everyone,” said Gina McCarthy, EPA assistant administrator, during an announcement Tuesday in Mount Pleasant.

The EPA's SmartWay Drayage Program encourages retailers who have goods shipped into the port to do 75 percent or more of their business with SmartWay approved truckers by 2014. Those retailers will pay a premium for truckers who have newer, less-polluting trucks.

The goal is to cut particulate matter pollutants and nitrogen oxide emissions over the next three years, according to the EPA. The initiative has eight retailers on board, including Target, Home Depot and Walmart.

“It’s as simple as matching green suppliers with green demand,” McCarthy said. “We found retailers who are concerned about their environmental footprint who are willing to make a commitment to do business, even at slightly higher costs, with those truckers who are willing to clean up their vehicles.”

The retailers do not get a government incentive, but McCarthy said some will see reduced costs because newer diesel trucks are more fuel-efficient.

The South Carolina State Ports Authority also announced a new program that could provide millions of dollars in incentives to encourage drayage truckers to spend major cash on new rigs.

“We’re going to work with truck owners to find the rationale to upgrade to a 2004 model year or newer,” said Jim Newsome, port president and CEO. “They’ll get a combination of some upfront money for a down payment and then … low-interest loans and favorable financing.”

Older trucks won’t be barred from the port. The partner retailers can still do some business with older dray truck operators. The port needs plenty of dray trucks as it continues to grow, but port officials want to provide an incentive to upgrade.

“Older trucks tend to gravitate to the ports. … We need that truck capacity,” Newsome said. “We’re doing this in the mindset of assisting them, not just saying their trucks can’t come in the port any more.”

The Charleston ports are the first to take part in the SmartWay Drayage Program. Officials hope it will be duplicated elsewhere.

Truckers who want to participate must operate a vehicle made after 2004 and they must track and reduce particulate matter pollutants by 50 percent and nitrogen oxides emissions by 50 percent below the industry average over three years.

One trucker said earning more money, along with the financial assistance, makes upgrading his truck attractive, though he estimates a new rig could cost him $80,000 or more.

“It doesn’t sound like a bad deal,” said Kenneth Scott, a Ravenel trucker who hauls loads from the Wando Terminal daily in his 1995 Freightliner. “Making more money at the port could help, especially since so many people aren’t paying as much as they used to.”