Publication: Bloomberg News

UCLA Expert: Colleen Callahan: Co-Executive Director, Luskin Center for Innovation;

Affiliate, Institute of the Environment and Sustainability

Synopsis: Drayage dates to the days when horses hauled goods from ports on carts called drays. Today, there are about 34,000 active drayage trucks in California, according to the California Air Resources Board (CARB). At the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, heavy-duty trucks account for 40% of greenhouse gas emissions, a 2019 UCLA study on the Southern California drayage industry found. Together, these ports are the single biggest source of air pollution in the region. 

UCLA News: “A lot of experts call it the diesel death zone,” says Callahan, co-author of the university’s study, which cited significantly higher rates of asthma among children living near the ports. “You have these kids going to school adjacent to rail yards and freeways where all these diesel trucks are transporting goods from the ports.”

Read more at Bloomberg News.