The ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles are taking steps to move their landmark Clean Truck Programs from concept to reality, beginning with a contract to get people on the ground to administer the program. Last week, the Port of Long Beach approved an $800,000 agreement with the Gateway Cities Council of Governments to reach out to the port drayage industry with the details of what trucking companies and drivers need to do to prepare for the programs scheduled to begin October 1. The Port of Los Angeles will share the cost. read more

The Los Angeles and Long Beach ports are evaluating proposals from third-party firms to manage the financing and truck fleet components of their Clean Trucks Programs. The ports are looking for a financial institution to buy a new fleet of port-subsidized, heavy-duty drayage trucks and lease them to participating owner-operators and licensed motor carriers along with lease-to-buy options. Separately, the ports are looking for a pool of manufacturers and dealers to supply the new cleaner-burning diesel and liquefied natural gas trucks at the lowest price to the program. read more

The Port of Los Angeles Board on Thursday will consider a proposed concession agreement for its Clean Truck Program. The long-awaited draft 34-page concession agreement spells out the details of how the port expects drayage companies to act if they want to do business at the port after the October 1 launch date. read more

Net income is falling, expenses are climbing, and the port is embarking on a 10-year, $4 billion construction program. Still, after a period of unprecedented double-digit growth, the Port of Los Angeles is on solid financial ground. Harbor commissioners say they plan to keep it that way. read more

Port of Long Beach operating revenues dropped by 1.3 percent to $185.7 million during the first half of fiscal year 2008, mainly due to a decrease in port gross tonnage, according to new statements by the port's Finance and Support Services department. read more

The ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles have reached an agreement with natural gas supplier Clean Energy for the construction and operation of a large liquefied natural gas fueling station on vacant property jointly owned by the two ports. Under the agreement, Clean Energy would operate the station on Anaheim Street, west of the Dominguez Channel overpass, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The fueling station would be the largest in the U.S. and perhaps the largest in the world, according to Greg Roche, Clean Energy's Director of Business Development. read more

Long Beach City and Port folks celebrated the city's first new fire station in 22 years at dedication ceremonies Tuesday morning on Terminal Island. They had reason to celebrate. Getting from the drawing board to steel and concrete has been an interesting journey. read more

Truckers, upset about high diesel prices, took to the streets at the Port of Oakland last week, slowing down operations and keeping police busy writing parking tickets and restoring order... The Port of San Diego Board voted Tuesday to fight a proposed ballot initiative that would amend the Port District's master plan to allow hotels, restaurants and other non-maritime uses at the Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal cargo facility... The Port of Long Beach is indefinitely extending a tariff provision under which inbound cargo at the Port of Los Angeles may be transported to ondock railyards at the Port of Long Beach without paying wharfage... Several operating companies of the Nautilus International Holding Corp. - including Metropolitan Stevedore Co., Southeast Crescent Shipping Co., Southeast Maritime Services LLC (which holds the Savannah International Terminal) and Cape Fear Bulk LLC - have been re-branded "Metro Ports." read more

The Port of Los Angeles staff this afternoon posted the details of its recommended Clean Truck Program Drayage Service Concession Agreement for drayage companies wishing to service port terminals after Oct. 1. Harbor Commissioners will consider adopting the measure at their 6 p.m. meeting on Thursday in San Pedro. read more

Nearly four years after a legal settlement that allowed China Shipping Lines to start moving cargo through the Port of Los Angeles, the port is back on track to finish the container terminal it started building in 2001. Last Wednesday the port released the draft environmental document required to complete the remaining phases of the project. read more

In the wake of the month-old agreement that ended the 10-year battle over expansion of the TraPac terminal, Port of Los Angeles officials and those known as the TraPac appellant group will meet Friday to discuss how they will work together on moving forward. The appellant group is an assortment of environmental and community groups that appealed the port's approval of the TraPac EIR to the City Council. read more

Any day now, 10 trucking companies that do business at the San Pedro Bay ports hope to take delivery of 117 new LNG-fueled, heavy-duty trucks with the help of more than $21.5 million dollars in grant money from the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach. read more

Puget Sound may be a thousand miles north of San Francisco Bay, but the allision of the Cosco Busan with the Bay Bridge last November may be an item of concern when the Washington State Pilotage Commission holds a public hearing Tuesday on an updated piloting tariff for the area. read more

The Natural Resources Defense Council has been getting some bad publicity lately, partly because of the company it keeps and partly because of its threatening the Port of Long Beach with legal action to get the port to take specific steps to clean up the environment. read more

Natural Resources Defense Council senior attorney David Pettit says his organization will be satisfied when every feasible step has been taken to clean up the port environment. As time goes on, that will probably mean electrifying the port, the trains and the other conveyances for moving cargo. They will probably never be able to completely eliminate diesel emissions from the ports, but they should be able to get much closer, he says. read more

If the San Pedro Bay ports were to immediately implement a component of their Clean Air Action Plan mandating the use of low-sulfur marine fuel in the main and auxiliary engines of visiting ships, it would potentially result in a fuel shortage in several regions around the globe, according to a new study. read more

The national deadline for maritime workers to have Transportation Worker Identification Credentials has been pushed back a year to April 15, 2009. But port workers - depending on their location - may find themselves facing earlier deadlines because the federal mandate is being phased in on a regional basis. read more

The ILWU shut down West Coast ports for one shift on Thursday in defiance of an arbitrator's orders, ostensibly to protest the war in Iraq... The Federal Maritime Commission is set Wednesday to have a closed-door discussion of the request for it to let the Port of Long Beach, the Port of Los Angeles, and marine terminal operators talk about how to implement the ports' clean truck programs... The Port of Seattle and Holland America Line last week launched "Ship to Shelter," a program under which Holland America will collect reusable goods from their cruise ships sailing from Seattle this summer and donate them to local charities. read more

West Coast Ports were idle today as ILWU members defied orders by the coast arbitrator and took off the day shift to protest the war in Iraq. The May Day protest was the result of a decision made back in February by the Longshore Caucus delegates. read more

Trucking and warehouse executives from California, Washington, Oregon, and Nevada gathered at a private meeting in Long Beach last week to talk over what is going on with port trucking, how they should respond to the changes, and legal strategies for fighting requirements they find unacceptable. The three and a half-hour meeting drew about 150 members of six trucking and logistics associations. read more

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are gearing up to hire a company that would set up and run a one-stop center to administer both ports' Clean Truck concession and financing programs. read more

Union Pacific made its case for an expanded and modernized ICTF railyard to a skeptical audience Tuesday evening at a meeting of the Intermodal Container Transfer Facility Joint Powers Authority in Long Beach. If approved as proposed, the modernization would more than double the throughput capacity of the near-dock ICTF from 725,000 containers a year to 1.5 million by 2025, while reducing its acreage from 233 acres to 177. Union Pacific says it would fund most, if not all, of the project's costs privately. read more

The California Assembly Transportation Committee is scheduled today to give Assembly Bill 2332 a second chance. The bill - which would ban any railyard construction or expansion projects within 440 yards of a school - failed to clear the committee two weeks ago, when six of the members were absent, but was granted reconsideration for today. read more