Port to Begin Clean Truck Fee Feb. 18 <Continue>
Funding will provide financial assistance for greener trucks
The West Coast Marine Terminal Operator
Agreement (WCMTOA) created the not-for-profit
company PortCheck
Under the program, the
cargo owner is responsible for paying the Clean
Trucks Fee. The fee will be payable by credit card
or electronic funds transfer, and must be paid
before a container can enter or leave the terminals.
In November, the ports
filed with the FMC their PortCheck agreement with
private terminal operators, who would develop and
operate an online and electronic gate access system
to collect the ports' $35 per
twenty-foot-container-unit Clean Trucks Fee.
After the PortCheck
agreement was filed with the FMC, the commission
ordered an initial 45-day review and then a second
45-day review, which concludes Feb. 13. Furthermore,
the FMC has filed a lawsuit to block portions of the
Clean Trucks Program as anti-competitive. U.S.
District Court Judge Richard J. Leon said he would
not rule on the FMC's request for a preliminary
injunction until sometime in 2009.
Cargo owners can visit
the PortCheck page at
http://www.portcheck.orci/ or
http;//www.pierpass-tmf.orq/ for updates.
Cargo owners that are already registered in PierPASS
offpeak terminal access system will automatically be
uploaded into PortCheck. Cargo owners that are
automatically uploaded from PierPASS into PortCheck
will first have to accept the terms and conditions
of PortCheck before their account will be extended
into PortCheck.
Contact: Art Wong, Port
of Long Beach Assistant Director of
Communications/Public Informal:ion Officer, (562)
590-4123, (562) 619-5665 (cell), or
wong@polb.com.