SmartWay the gateway to big box port freight

WASHINGTON –Drayage carriers are likely going to need the EPA SmartWay seal of approval if they want to haul large shares of retail freight to and from U.S. shipping ports.

The EPA is launching the SmartWay Drayage Program as a new initiative to reduce diesel emissions from drayage trucks.

Under the program, carriers agree to reduce particulate emissions by 50 percent and nitrogen oxides, NOx by 25 percent below the industry average over three years. (This can typically be done by purchasing newer, 2007-2011 diesel engines and adding fuel efficient technologies).

In return, SmartWay dray shipper partners – including Walmart, Best Buy, The Home Depot, Hewlett Packard, JC Penney, Lowe’s, Nike, and Target — will commit to use the cleaner trucks to haul 75 percent or more of port freight.

Many dray trucks in operations are older models which produce more emissions than highway trucks, says EPA.

Pre-1994 dray trucks emit approximately 60 times more fine particle emissions than model year 2007 and newer trucks, says EPA.

"It is a very good reasonable program, an extension of what they have been doing in the broader long-haul trucking," said Curtis Whalen, executive director of the American Trucking Associations’ Intermodal Motor Carriers Conference.