The Coalition for Responsible Transportation, U.S. Environmental Defense Fund and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on June 28 announced the launch of the EPA SmartWay Drayage Program, a goods movement initiative designed to clean up the air in and around U.S. ports. The announcement came at a press conference held at the Port of Charleston, S.C.

The new SmartWay Drayage Program builds a partnership among numerous goods movement stakeholders, including major national retailers, trucking companies, port communities, environmental groups and EPA to reduce harmful air emissions from port drayage trucks.

“The partnership will generate private sector investment in clean technology, improve the environmental quality of our nation’s port communities and demonstrate the commitment we have made as the shipping industry’s leaders to emissions reductions,” said Rick Gabrielson, CRT president and Target’s director of import operations.

Drayage trucks, typically older and more polluting than long-haul trucks, operate in and around port areas and represent one of the largest sources of diesel emissions associated with ports. This program was designed to specifically address the unique environmental issues associated with port trucking, to incentivize the deployment of newer cleaner port trucks across the nation, and to recognize SmartWay Drayage Partners for reducing diesel emissions from those trucks.

“This program offers great incentives for independent owner-operators and trucking companies to replace their older drayage trucks with cleaner, less polluting models,” said Marcia Aronoff, EDF senior vice president for programs.

The SmartWay Drayage Program is based on the SmartWay Transport Partnership, which is a collaboration between EPA and goods movement stakeholders intended to provide a framework to assess transportation-related emissions and energy efficiency, and recognize superior environmental performance.