An economic model for sustainable harbor trucking

Truck emissions at a port may have a severe impact on neighbors, resulting in a politically sensitive sustainability issue for the port management. Strict emissions controls may adversely affect throughput whereas the lack of strict controls will be unacceptable to local citizens and environmental interests. We develop an economic model minimizing cost of truck emissions control and collateral production changes and apply it to decision making for a port seeking to meet a throughput goal while also attempting to satisfy an emissions constraint. Outcomes predicted by the model allow informed decisions about the impact of controls.

► Harbor truck emissions require policy decisions by port management. ► A sustainable port must reduce truck emissions and meet production goals. ► Nonlinear economic model minimizes constrained capital and labor cost of upgrades. ► We estimate unit costs of emissions reduction and production increase. ► A real port example shows effects on hauling cost and estimates price of emissions.