Knight, Swift to join L.A. truck plan

Arizona-based trucking firms Knight Transportation and Swift Transportation have agreed to enter the Southern California drayage market under contract with the Port of Los Angeles.

While the number of trucks the two will bring into port service has yet to be determined, port officials estimate that two firms?collective pool will exceed 2,000 trucks.

The two Phoenix-based firms submitted letters of intent to the port. They are the largest firms to commit to the port-issued access licenses, called concession agreements by the port. The licenses are part of the Southern California ports?jointly developed truck plan, which seeks to replace or retrofit nearly 17,000 local drayage vehicles with newer and less polluting models within the next five years.

Under restrictions adopted by the port, and the neighboring Long Beach port, the truck plan will bar all motor carrier without an access license from entering the port terminals after Oct. 1.

Knight and Swift are eligible for financial incentives adopted by the port Thursday that provides up to $30,000 per truck to motor carriers that do not rely on truck plan funds to bring their fleets up to the plan's mandated emission standards. According to the port, all of the estimated 2,000 Knight and Swift trucks are already compliant with the truck plan emission criteria, meaning the two firms could be eligible for up to $60 million under the incentive plan.

The two truck plan financial incentives, adopted by Los Angeles port commissioners Thursday, are designed to attract members of the trucking industry that do not intend to rely on the port financial grants to replace or retrofit their trucks.

One incentive offers a one-time payout of up to $20,000 to those motor carrier that sign up for the port's access license and paid for their vehicles without truck plan funds.

A second incentive would pay $10 per dray on all loaded inbound containers moved through the port terminals. The second incentive is limited an annual per truck maximum of $10,000.

To pay for these incentives, the commissioners adopted an amendment to the port's tariff that allows the funds to be drawn from a port-imposed $35-per-TEU container tax, set to begin collection on Oct. 1.

Executive Director Geraldine Knatz said the two firms?letters of intent come after months of negotiations to bring the national carriers into Los Angeles under the port's version of a trucking re-regulation plan.

Last month, the port held an invitation-only meeting with representatives from eight large motor carriers to persuade them to enter the port drayage market under terms of the port抯 truck plan. Besides Knight and Swift, other invited to the meeting were RoadLink, Pacer, CalCartage, Horizon, Frozen Foods Express and Logistics Insight.

The Los Angeles-Long Beach drayage market is served by more than 1,300 motor carrier, mostly small firms with fleets of less than 20 trucks.

Since the introduction of the truck plan early last year, Port of Los Angeles officials said a goal of their version of the truck plan was to consolidate the local drayage industry into a handful of large carriers with financial keep pockets.

Source: Transportweekly