Wouldn’t it be just great if the “Clean Trucks” program could be put into effect out on the West Coast without hitting the trucker where it hurts, and without imposing add-on fees such as the national container fee introduced by Rep. Richardson and the SB 974 legislation being proposed by Senator Lowenthal? All these cost increases, of course, are ostensibly the responsibility of the truckers and the owner of the goods being shipped, but as everyone knows, every penny of these costs will be passed on to the consumer. But the consumer… the patsy… the fall-guy… the one with the “deep pockets” no longer has significance. Like the rest of our economy, the U.S. consumer and his/her buying power have gone south, and although the whole world is aware of this nation’s financial disaster, October 1st is still the magic date in the minds of those LA/Long Beach port officials who are living in a dreamworld.

In case you’re thinking that the question posed above is also just speculative fantasy, please recall the purpose of this website. We’ve been publicizing our patented container yard systems for more than ten years, and we’ve stressed especially the efficiency and the dramatic cost reductions these systems would bring to terminals. In fact, we provided this information to most U.S. terminal operators and port officials. We made it clear in our presentations that by retrofitting our system on reduced amounts of acreage, hundreds of millions of dollars would be saved, thousands of acres would be released to local communities, and the cost of goods to consumers would be drastically reduced.

So to answer the question, if our systems had been installed in those West Coast terminals, the “Clean Trucks” program would already be in place and higher profits to terminal operators, as well as reduced costs to consumers, would assure that container terminals would remain “the gold mines of today” … and no fees, fines or penalties would ever be required.

Look back at our October 6th, 2004 commentary, “On a Tangent”, where we suggested a review of our Problems and Solutions page, wherein we stated, “The problem side clearly but briefly acknowledges that inspections are severely hampered in container terminals because of hasty and random stacking. This is a result of what has been stated above and needs to be repeated; ‘There’s not enough space, there’s not enough time, there’s not enough personnel, there’s not enough money, etc., etc. …’. On the solutions side of the ledger it states that our patented system assures that inspections will be smooth, efficient and unhampered. Our system requires that each container, assigned to a predetermined slot prior to arrival, must first pass through an x-ray scanner. Then it is stored in its programmed slot. Because our system utilizes a small fraction of the acreage now committed to present day terminal operations, there’s no lack of space for scanning procedures. Because our system does away with unnecessary repositioning moves, there’s no lack of time for scanning procedures. Because our system permits timely hiring and training procedures, there’s no shortage of personnel. Because our system requires so little in the way of material handling equipment and general maintenance, there’s no lack of money.”

[And that’s what our patented systems would be providing to terminal operators … MONEY!]