Drayage Truck Research Articles

Electric truck feasibility for port drayage operations: Port Houston case study

Heavy-duty fleet electrification has the potential to reduce lifecycle operation costs, greenhouse gases, and criteria pollutant emissions. However, there are several obstacles to shifting from diesel fleets to full-electric fleets, such as range constraints and a lack of public charging infrastructure. This study developed an analytical feasibility framework for assessing the transition of an all-diesel heavy-duty fleet to a full-electric or a mixed electric and diesel fleet for drayage trucks operating at and around ports. The proposed framework devised a structured approach and multiple measures for determining the viability of heavy-duty fleet electrification, taking technological, operational, and economic aspects into account. The case study showed that, while battery electric trucks cannot replace entire diesel fleets yet, they are technologically and economically feasible for a portion of drayage operations. This practice will facilitate fleet electrification, particularly heavy-duty, by tackling major roadblocks and providing insight into the numerous unknown possibilities.

A Dynamic Programming Model for Joint Optimization of Electric Drayage Truck Operations and Charging Stations Planning at Ports

A Dynamic Programming Model for Joint Optimization of Electric Drayage Truck Operations and Charging Stations Planning at Ports

Inter-terminal transportation for an offshore port integrating an inland container depot

Offshore ports, which are located on islands or away from the hinterland, are usually connected with the hinterland via bridges for truck transportation. With the rapid growth of port throughput, the bridges are likely to become a bottleneck restricting the development of port business. Inland container depots (ICD) have been introduced as satellite terminals to address congestion issues on bridges by allowing a proportion of drayage trucks to pick up and drop off containers at the ICD instead of going to the container terminals of the offshore ports. Containers are transported between the ICD and container terminals by inter-terminal transportation (ITT) trucks owned by port authorities. The ICD is expected to mitigate the bridge congestion by transferring the travel demands of drayage trucks in peak hours to the travel demands of ITT trucks in off-peak hours. We propose a methodology for analyzing the influence of ICDs on port efficiency. An integer linear programming model is developed to optimize the movements of containers, drayage trucks and ITT trucks in an offshore port area with the objective of minimizing the costs of drayage trucks and ITT trucks and the penalty for late delivery of containers. Two model transformation approaches are proposed to reduce the solution space of the model for improving the computational efficiency of the algorithm. The influence of ICDs on port efficiency is evaluated through a real-world case study using the proposed methodology. The results provide insights for port authorities to make strategic decisions.

Lane Management Strategies in a Connected Environment: Analysis of Freight Corridor Scenarios for I-710 in Southern California

Connected vehicles (CVs) and their supporting infrastructure are expected to play an important role in the management of traffic congestion. As highway expansion projects are becoming less common, deploying emerging technologies is essential to make the most of the current road infrastructure. Most published studies report that CVs improve traffic performance only marginally. Here, we propose that CVs drive cooperatively with cooperative adaptive cruise control (CACC)-enabled vehicles by designating a CACC lane for periods with high flows of slow-moving heavy-duty drayage trucks. To assess if this approach could help absorb year 2035 projected drayage traffic increases at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, which is the largest port complex in the U.S.A., we analyze three 2035 scenarios for I-710, a key freeway for freight transportation in Southern California: (1) CACC-enabled vehicles are deployed under mixed traffic conditions; (2) CACC-enabled vehicles are restricted to the first lane (left-most lane); (3) the first lane is reserved for CACC-enabled vehicles, and access is optional. Our results suggest that substantial speed improvements can be obtained, but only when the first lane is CACC reserved with optional access, because this approach creates more platooning opportunities and thus helps maximize the benefits of CACC.

Health and equity impacts from electrifying drayage trucks

Health and equity impacts from electrifying drayage trucks

Emissions analysis of the Port Drayage Truck Replacement Program and local air quality: The case of the Port of New York and New Jersey

This paper quantifies the expected amount of emissions reduction from the Port Drayage Truck Replacement Program (TRP) at the Port of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ). The TRP is a voluntary subsidy program to replace old heavy-duty diesel trucks with newer diesel engine-year models that have better fuel economy and lower emissions. Using the Port Authority’s data from their 2019 Port Emission Inventory and monthly Port Truck Pass reports in 2020, this research calculates the on-terminal idling emissions based on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) Motor Vehicle Emission Simulator (MOVES) model. If all eligible trucks are replaced, annual NOx emissions would be reduced by 12.8 percent (98.5 tons), and PM2.5 by 1.6 percent (5.2 tons). This result underscores the important impact of TRP implementation to local air quality, especially for the near-port residents. It is inferred that the near-port populations include lower income populations with higher asthma rates where nitrogen oxides (NOx) could be reduced below the hazardous level after TRP implementation. Overall, considering the marginal benefits, costs, and time, TRP remains potentially the most affordable and practical interim policy to immediately reduce the local emissions among other alternative fuel options.

Health and Equity Impacts from Electrifying Drayage Trucks: A Southern-California Case Study

Health and Equity Impacts from Electrifying Drayage Trucks: A Southern-California Case Study

Impact of overbooking reservation mechanism on container terminal’s operational performance and greenhouse gas emissions

Truck appointment systems facilitate coordination between container terminals and drayage trucks in container pick-up operation reservation. However, in many cases, trucks with a reservation do not arrive at the scheduled appointment. As the number of no-shows increases, the container terminal’s productivity will plummet, and drayage trucks that failed to get reservations will lose their opportunity to get service. This research proposes an overbooking reservation mechanism (ORM) to alleviate the negative impact of these no-shows. This research scrutinizes the detailed process mapping of the existing reservation mechanism, proposes an ORM, and conducts agent-based simulations to evaluate the ORM's performance against the regular and go-show reservation mechanisms at different levels of no-shows and working occupancies. The application of an ORM can improve productivity and service levels while minimizing such negative externalities as queue length, overtime, and greenhouse gas emissions. High overtime intensities only appear when the container terminal's workload is exceptionally high, at 200% of maximum capacity, with a low level of no-shows. Even in exceptionally high demand conditions, the drayage trucks wait only up to 16 min before receiving service.

Feasibility of Operating a Heavy-Duty Battery Electric Truck Fleet for Drayage Applications

Vehicle fleet electrification is regarded as one major pathway toward achieving energy independence and reducing air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Compared to light-duty and medium-duty vehicles, electrification of heavy-duty vehicles, especially Class 8 trucks, is more challenging owing to the battery size required to attain the driving range necessary for their operating goals. As drayage trucks generally have a limited daily mileage, return to a home base every night, and spend a large amount of time creeping and idling, drayage operation has been the first targeted application for Class 8 electric trucks. The feasibility of operating battery electric drayage trucks at the individual vehicle level has recently been demonstrated. However, questions remain as to whether these trucks are capable of meeting the needs of typical drayage operation at the fleet level. This paper presents a feasibility analysis of operating an electric truck fleet based on real-world operation data of a diesel drayage operator in Southern California. Second-by-second activity data collected from 20 trucks in the fleet were used to estimate the corresponding electric energy consumption and the state of charge of the battery using a microscopic electric energy consumption model. An algorithm for generating tours of drayage activity from the collected data was developed and implemented. Multiple scenarios with different battery charging and truck scheduling assumptions were analyzed. The results show that 85% of the tours could be served by electric trucks if there is opportunity for charging at the home base during the time gap between consecutive tours.

Tour-Based Truck Demand Modeling with Entropy Maximization Using GPS Data

An approach is presented to determine the most likely tour distributions and model behavior for investigating drayage truck movements in a coastal region. This was done by implementing a revised form of entropy maximization based on truck tours to model and better understand drayage truck tour behavior at the San Pedro Bay Ports (SPBPs) complex in Southern California. The drayage trucks at the SPBPs have features that are distinct from other commercial trucks. The tour-based entropy maximization model proposed in this paper provides an opportunity to incorporate periodically updated GPS data collected in Southern California into a large-scale tour-based model. With the dataset, four models were estimated by cargo movement: (1) year-based, (2) low period, (3) medium period, and (4) high period models. The findings were consistent with the tour patterns varying by season and by cargo movement. Furthermore, the medium period, which represented relatively steady cargo movement, indicated a better MAPE (mean absolute percent error) than did other models. This proposed approach provides a significant advantage in that the most recent touring information obtained from advanced technologies could be directly applied to the tour-based model and subsequently used to assess various strategies.

Intelligent logistics integration of internal and external transportation with separation mode

Many multinational companies operate their business in both domestic and overseas markets with different logistics modes, namely freight transportation by truck for domestic and short-haulage transshipment by container for overseas. To effectively optimize these operations for the two types of logistics systems, we propose an intelligent integration of external and internal transportation with the separation of drayage trucks and containers. The objective is to minimize the total cost, which includes both fixed and variable costs. The fixed cost occurs when the drayage truck is incurred in integrating transportation, and the variable cost is generated per travel distance increment. By dividing customers into different subsets and proposing a special penalty matrix, we provide an intelligent model that integrates the internal and external container transportation problems. A customized genetic algorithm is proposed. Based on the instances of real-life data on 888 orders, the results show that our approach can reduce the overall cost by 16.8%.

Control Technology-Driven Changes to In-Use Heavy-Duty Diesel Truck Emissions of Nitrogenous Species and Related Environmental Impacts.

Emissions from thousands of in-use heavy-duty diesel trucks were sampled at a highway and an arterial street location in the San Francisco Bay Area, spanning a time period when use of diesel particle filters (DPFs) and selective catalytic reduction (SCR) increased rapidly. At the highway site where a diverse mix of trucks is observed, SCR systems on 2010 and newer engines reduce emitted nitrogen oxides (NOx) by 87 ± 5% relative to pre-2004 engines. SCR also mitigates DPF-related increases in nitrogen dioxide (NO2) emissions. However, a majority of trucks had in-use NOx emission rates that exceeded applicable emission standards. SCR systems increase emissions of nitrous oxide (N2O) and ammonia (NH3) from near-zero levels to 0.93 ± 0.13 and 0.18 ± 0.07 g kg-1, respectively. Emissions of all nitrogenous species and especially NH3 are skewed; 10% of trucks contribute 95% of the on-road fleet's total NH3 emissions. Similar emission changes are observed at the arterial street site where exclusively drayage trucks operate. The environmental effects of decreased black carbon, NOx, and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and increased N2O and NH3 emissions due to the rapid adoption of DPF and SCR systems by the California truck fleet are: (1) a 65% net decrease in the social cost of statewide exposure to diesel truck emissions (-3.3 billion 2018 US dollars per year), and (2) a 3% net decrease in the global warming potential-weighted emission factor (-27 g CO2-eq km-1).

A Study on Emissions from Drayage Trucks in the Port City-Focusing on the Port of Incheon

As a result of growing international trade, port-related emission is a spreading issue for urban areas located near ports, especially, hub port cities where population density is concentrated. The awareness of rapidly increasing drayage trucks moving cargo between the port and its hinterland has motivated the necessity of a detailed look at negative environmental impacts of these truck fleets on the achievement of sustainability goals. This study analyzes emission inventory from trucking activities around the Port of Incheon (POI), especially focusing on major air pollutants, and suggests ideas to support establishing new policies in port area. Data on the number of truck, the year of production, the type of fuel, etc. during 2018 were collected from Incheon Port Security and Korea Transport Safety Authority. A bottom-up methodology is applied based on guideline from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). As results, the major role of drayage truck fleets to local air pollution was highlighted with the high contribution of CO and NOx emissions. Hence, this study suggested the establishment of Emission Control Area (ECA) and Affected Zone on the landside as well as implementing Integrated Information System and Truck Appointment System to reduce congestion at gate, limit the number of emissions and minimize negative impacts to local community.

Characterization of Drayage Activities in the Paso Del Norte Airshed

The overall objective of the study was to characterize drayage truck activity and associated emissions in the Paso del Norte region, which is the binational region covering El Paso in Texas and Ciudad Juárez in Mexico. Drayage trucks are a significant source of emissions in the Paso del Norte airshed. The region faces air quality problems and characterizing the unique operational and emission characteristics of drayage vehicles can better support regional air quality planning. In this study, the global positioning system and portable activity measurement system units were fitted to a sample of drayage trucks operating in the El Paso region. The resulting data were analyzed to generate trip-level information on truck activity, along with key parameters, such as speeds, origin, destination, and length. The individual trip information was also used to identify key freight corridors and to estimate emissions associated with drayage activity. The study dataset showed that the Ysleta-Zaragoza International Bridge is the most utilized by the trucks. The facilities visited in the United States tended to be more clustered closer to this bridge, in less urbanized areas, while facilities visited in Mexico tended to be more spread out geographically. Corridor truck volumes and emissions were plotted on maps to visualize emission impacts of drayage trucks, with urbanized areas and areas close to border bridges likely most affected because of higher volumes and emissions. The findings from the study provide an understanding of air quality impacts of drayage trucks in the Paso del Norte airshed.

High-spatial-resolution mapping and source apportionment of aerosol composition in Oakland, California, using mobile aerosol mass spectrometry

Abstract. We investigated spatial and temporal patterns in the concentration and composition of submicron particulate matter (PM1) in Oakland, California, in the summer of 2017 using an aerosol mass spectrometer mounted in a mobile laboratory. We performed ∼160 h of mobile sampling in the city over a 20-day period. Measurements are compared for three adjacent neighborhoods with distinct land uses: a central business district (“downtown”), a residential district (“West Oakland”), and a major shipping port (“port”). The average organic aerosol (OA) concentration is 5.3 µg m−3 and contributes ∼50 % of the PM1 mass. OA concentrations in downtown are, on average, 1.5 µg m−3 higher than in West Oakland and port. We decomposed OA into three factors using positive matrix factorization: hydrocarbon-like OA (HOA; 20 % average contribution), cooking OA (COA; 25 %), and less-oxidized oxygenated OA (LO-OOA; 55 %). The collective 45 % contribution from primary OA (HOA + COA) emphasizes the importance of primary emissions in Oakland. The dominant source of primary OA shifts from HOA-rich in the morning to COA-rich after lunchtime. COA in downtown is consistently higher than West Oakland and port due to a large number of restaurants. HOA exhibits variability in space and time. The morning-time HOA concentration in downtown is twice that in port, but port HOA increases more than two-fold during midday, likely because trucking activity at the port peaks at that time. While it is challenging to mathematically apportion traffic-emitted OA between drayage trucks and cars, combining measurements of OA with black carbon and CO suggests that while trucks have an important effect on OA and BC at the port, gasoline-engine cars are the dominant source of traffic emissions in the rest of Oakland. Despite the expectation of being spatially uniform, LO-OOA also exhibits spatial differences. Morning-time LO-OOA in downtown is roughly 25 % (∼0.6 µg m−3) higher than the rest of Oakland. Even as the entire domain approaches a more uniform photochemical state in the afternoon, downtown LO-OOA remains statistically higher than West Oakland and port, suggesting that downtown is a microenvironment with higher photochemical activity. Higher concentrations of particulate sulfate (also of secondary origin) with no direct sources in Oakland further reflect higher photochemical activity in downtown. A combination of several factors (poor ventilation of air masses in street canyons, higher concentrations of precursor gases, higher concentrations of the hydroxyl radical) likely results in the proposed high photochemical activity in downtown. Lastly, through Van Krevelen analysis of the elemental ratios (H ∕ C, O ∕ C) of the OA, we show that OA in Oakland is more chemically reduced than several other urban areas. This underscores the importance of primary emissions in Oakland. We also show that mixing of oceanic air masses with these primary emissions in Oakland is an important processing mechanism that governs the overall OA composition in Oakland.

Loop Energy fuel cell range-extenders for California truck project

Canadian-based Loop Energy's heavy-duty fuel cell range-extender will power two hybrid-electric Class 8 drayage trucks that will operate for a year as part of a Fast Track Fuel Cell Truck Project in southern California, as a precursor to the wider deployment of zero-emission Class 8 drayage trucks.

Truck appointment systems considering impact to drayage truck tours

This paper proposes a novel approach for designing a Truck Appointment System (TAS) intended to serve both the maritime container terminal operator and drayage operators. The aim of the proposed TAS is to minimize the impact to both terminal and drayage operations. In regard to terminal operations, the TAS seeks to distribute the truck arrivals evenly throughout the day to avoid gate and yard congestion. In regard to drayage operations, the TAS explicitly considers the drayage truck tours and seeks to provide appointment times such that trucks do not have to deviate greatly from their original schedule. The proposed TAS is formulated as a mixed integer nonlinear program (MINLP) and the model is solved using the Lingo commercial software. Experimental results indicate that the proposed TAS reduces the drayage operation cost by 11.5% compared to a TAS where its aim is only to minimize gate queuing time by making truck arrivals uniform throughout the day.

Measurement and Analysis of the Operations of Drayage Trucks in the Houston Area in Terms of Activities and Exhaust Emissions.

The effects of exhaust emissions on public welfare have prompted the US Environmental Protection Agency to take various actions toward understanding, modeling, and reducing air pollution from vehicles. This study was performed to better understand exhaust emissions of heavy-duty diesel-powered tractor-trailer trucks that operate in drayage service, which involves the moving of shipping containers to or from port terminals. The study involved the use of portable emissions measurement systems (PEMS) to measure both gaseous and particulate matter (PM) mass emission rates and record various vehicle and engine parameters from the test trucks as they performed their normal drayage service. These measurements were supplemented with port terminal gate entry/exit logs for all drayage trucks entering the two Port of Houston Authority container terminals. The datasets were combined to analyze model year characteristics of drayage trucks over time, evaluate port visit frequencies and durations, assess geographic distributions of trucks that perform port service, and estimate the pollutant emissions related to drayage operations. When compared to certification results, measured pollutant emissions generally exceeded certification standards in terms of nitrogen oxides and PM, although this difference may be partly because these vehicles were not tested on certification cycles but rather actual in-use operation. The findings of this work indicate that less than 3.5 percent of gaseous drayage truck emissions are released during operation within port terminals, as drayage trucks operate at higher engine loads during their extensive travels throughout the region around the port.

A GPS Data Processing Framework for Analysis of Drayage Truck Tours

A Clean Trucks Program (CTP) has been enacted at California’s San Pedro Bay Ports (SPBP) of Long Beach and Los Angeles, to help address major environmental issues associated with port operations. “Clean trucks” (meeting 2007 model year emission standards) that utilized public funds to replace older, polluting drayage trucks were required to be fitted with GPS units for compliance monitoring, with an expectation that freight truck movements could be investigated more precisely. Such implementation also served as a prototype of emerging smart freight mobility concepts, which are often heavily data-driven processes, but which should provide data and insights that are useful to both researchers and practitioners. Accordingly, this paper reports on research to develop a comprehensive framework for processing SPBP clean truck GPS data, to both interpret tour behavior of clean drayage trucks, and to prepare sufficient tour data for clean truck modeling at the SPBP. An important finding is that clean trucks at the SPBP have distinct tour characteristics. First, most completed a tour within one day, but one day of travel behavior is not necessarily representative of any other day. Second, the identified tour types contain repetitive trip patterns while other commercial trucks mostly tend to travel as circulative patterns. These insights into clean truck behavior at the SPBP potentially provide more accurate depictions of current conditions and better projections of future conditions for freight related improvement plans and models.

Ballard, Kenworth fuel cell truck validation moves to next stage

The Kenworth Truck Company's hybrid battery-fuel cell Class 8 drayage truck, featuring a fuel cell engine supplied by Ballard Power Systems, has successfully completed initial road testing by pulling a container in highway conditions around Seattle. The truck was also displayed at the CES 2018 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.