TIAX, Cambridge, Mass., announced it has been awarded a contract from the Gateway Cities Clean Air Program to continue replacement of heavy-duty trucks in the Los Angeles area with newer, lower-emission vehicles
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Since 2002, TIAX has coordinated replacement of approximately 350 trucks with newer vehicles that feature cleaner, more efficient engines.
Under the $712,500 contract covering fiscal year 2005-2006, TIAX will continue to broker agreements between the Gateway Cities Clean Air Program and truck owners to ensure that they meet grant requirements and program guidelines. The company will see that trucks purchased during this phase of the program are equipped with special "retrofit" devices that further reduce diesel exhaust emission levels, and global positioning systems that allow TIAX to track each truck's activities and gain a better understanding of where emissions are being reduced.
Commercial truck owners who qualify for the program can trade in their older diesel trucks (pre-1986) and receive a grant averaging about $22,000 toward the purchase of a newer model truck (1999 or newer) that has a more fuel-efficient, cleaner-burning engine. The engines of the old trucks are then destroyed to ensure that they can no longer contribute to air pollution in the region.
Through the replacement of the older trucks, it is estimated that up to 4 tons of nitrogen oxides emissions and up to 1 ton of harmful diesel soot emissions are reduced for each truck over its assumed remaining life of five years.
To qualify for the Gateway Cities Clean Air Program, a truck owner must be able to demonstrate that his vehicle has been used commercially in the South Coast Air Basin for the past two years. This 6,600-square-mile area includes all of Orange County and the non-desert portions of Los Angeles, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties. They also must agree to continue their work in the South Coast Air Basin for the next five years.
The long-term goal of the Clean Air Program is to replace 3,000 existing heavy-duty vehicles, which represent approximately a third of the pre-1987 truck fleet in Los Angeles County. Funding comes from a collaborative of government agencies at the federal, state, and local levels.
The Gateway Cities Clean Air Program is managed by the Gateway Cities Council of Governments (GCCOG) in cooperation with the Port of Long Beach, the California Air Resources Board (CARB), the Mobile Source Review Committee, the Port of Los Angeles and the United States Environmental Protection Agency. For information on the Gateway Cities Clean Air Program and participating dealers, call the Clean Air Program information line at (800) 800-4414 or visit the Gateway Cities Council of Governments web site at www.gatewaycog.org.