Truck Replacement Program to Improve Air Quality Scraps 200th Truck

The Northwest Seaport Alliance and Puget Sound Clean Air Agency work together to reduce diesel emissions. The incentive program helping drayage truck owners purchase newer, lower-emission trucks to improve regional air quality recently replaced its 200th truck.

The Seaport Truck Scrappage and Replacements for Air in Puget Sound 2 (ScRAPS 2) is a joint program of The Northwest Seaport Alliance and Puget Sound Clean Air Agency to reduce diesel particulate emissions in the region. It supports the NWSA Clean Truck Program’s target for all port-bound trucks to have model year 2007 or newer engines by Jan. 1, 2018.

About 2,500 trucks visit NWSA terminals each day. ScRAPS 2 encourages owners to replace trucks with engines manufactured between 1994 and 2006 with newer models built to meet updated U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards.

Trucks with engines built after 2007 emit 10 times less particulate pollution than older ones. The PSCAA and NWSA estimate that taking 200 older trucks off Puget Sound roads will result in an annual reduction of 9 tons of diesel particulates and 114 tons of oxides of nitrogen.

ScRAPs 2 reimburses eligible truck owners for part of the cost of a new truck and demolishes and recycles the older model at local vehicle recycling facilities. Truck owners who buy a truck with a model year 2010 engine or newer receive as much as $27,000 in return; a truck with a model year 2007 to 2009 engine yields up to $20,000.

Launched in May 2014, the program was expanded earlier this month to make it easier to qualify for trucks primarily serving the NWSA’s South Harbor. Now 200 trips to either the North or South harbor qualifies truck owners for the incentive program. The program has funding to replace an additional 125 trucks.

Previous ScRAPS programs in Seattle and Tacoma targeted trucks with engines built before 1994 and replaced more than 400 trucks.

Under the Northwest Ports Clean Air Strategy, adopted in 2008, the ports of Seattle and Tacoma and Vancouver, B.C., committed to reduce emissions from all port-related sources—trucks, cargo equipment, ships and trains. The NWSA Clean Truck Program focuses on meeting the strategy’s goals for trucks.

ScRAPS 2 is funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation/Washington State Department of Transportation, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington State Department of Ecology and the NWSA.

Photo credit: Franck_Michel via Source / CC BY