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Port of Vancouver prohibits substandard trucks
Lora Grady
Vancouver—The Vancouver Port Authority (VPA) announced new truck safety and environmental licensing standards last month, to prohibit substandard trucks from using the port.
The new Truck Licensing System (TLS) aims to develop a safer, cleaner and more sustainable container truck fleet serving the terminals.
By January 2008, the port will no longer allow access to container trucks older than 1989. By January 2009, the VPA will prohibit access to container trucks older than 1994. The TLS will include
an appeals process to consider older trucks meeting acceptable alternatives to reduce emissions.
The TLS—described by the VPA as the most demanding container truck safety and environmental licensing standard in North America—
includes more stringent enforcement, data qualification and audit provisions to allow port authorities to block non-compliant equipment
from entering.
In terms of enforcement, officials will use a threetiered approach. Truckers will receive cumulative warnings, followed by suspensions
and for the most serious offences over time, cancellation of a company’s truck license.
The new standards will require cleaner and more modern engine technology by phasing-out the use of older container trucks.
“This new version of the TLS exceeds existing provincial environmental standards and raises the bar for container truck safety at the Port of Vancouver…and will improve air quality in
our communities and remove unsafe trucks from our roads,” said Chris Badger, vice-president of customer development and operations with the VPA.
Other environmental provisions will address smoke opacity, engine idling and driver education. To qualify for the mandatory licence,
trucking companies in 2008 will be required to pass increasingly strict annual opacity checks conducted by provincially certified facilities and pass random checks throughout the year.
The port authority will also enforce a new mandatory idle reduction provision on and around port property and introduce a compulsory annual driver education component to the truck licence. The new
licensing system is expected to be fully implemented by January 2008. b2b
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