Oakland Port to Offer Grants to Replace Old Trucks
he Port of Oakland plans to help truckers with trucks built in 1986 or earlier by offering grants of up to $25,000 toward a new truck, the Oakland Tribune newspaper reported.
The move is part of an effort to curb air pollution around the fourth-largest container port in the nation, the paper said.
he program, to be funded with port money, is the result of a settlement agreement the port made when it began a big expansion project more than 10 years ago, the Tribune said.
Making trucks cleaner was the last part of that agreement and the most difficult to accomplish, the Tribune said.
The new program comes on the heels of a failed idea to retrofit old trucks with new engines. In that program, the port offered truckers money to equip their rigs with new engines, the paper reported.
Truckers didn't care for that because it did not increase the value of their rigs and left them without a source of income while their trucks were being retrofitted, the paper reported.
