T.G.S. Transportation: Battery Electric or Hydrogen?

Peter Schneider, the President of T.G.S. Transportation, Inc., faced a choice. His company operated drayage trucks that moved containerized cargo between the Ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Oakland to customers across the State of California, with a focus on the Central Valley. California’s new Advanced Clean Fleets Regulation (ACF) issued by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) in 2023, had specific requirements for drayage trucks that moved cargo from the state’s intermodal seaports and railyards. Internal combustion engine (ICE) trucks placed in service by yearend 2023 would be allowed to continue to serve the ports and terminals, but beginning January 1, 2024, newly purchased trucks would have to be zero-emission. That meant that drayage operators like TGS could make a last-time buy of ICE trucks in 2023, but they had to decide what to switch to starting in 2024. The only viable choices were battery electric or hydrogen fuel cell.