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A one-mile electrified highway has gone live with three heavy-duty trucks running between the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif., as partners Siemens and the South Coast Air Quality Management District seek to cut emissions from trucks serving the two largest U.S. ports.

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach announced they have approved the 2017 Clean Air Action Plan Update that sets out aggressive clean air strategies for moving cargo through the nation’s busiest container port complex — which is on pace for the busiest year ever.

The peak 2017 shipping season remains red hot, with nearly every major port reporting greater container traffic in September than a year ago.

Truck drivers took six fewer minutes to enter and exit the two large Southern California ports last month compared with September 2016, although one year ago, Hanjin Shipping rattled the supply chain when it abruptly shut its doors Aug. 31.

Container traffic continues to flourish in the peak shipping season, easily outpacing last year’s totals in September.

LONG BEACH, Calif. — The average truck turn time at the nation’s two largest ports slowed one minute in August compared with last year, even while more containers flowed into the terminals this year.

The average time it took a truck driver to enter and exit the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach increased four minutes in July, the third consecutive month of year-over-year increases in what has become a record-setting peak shipping season.

The average time it took a trucker to enter and exit the ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif., inched up one minute in June from the same month in 2016, although data from the Harbor Trucking Association revealed encouraging signs that drivers are moving quicker than a year ago.

Cargo owners will soon pay more to have trucking companies pick up their containers after the West Coast Marine Terminal Operators Agreement announced a 2.3% increase in the PierPass fee effective Aug. 1.

Aggressively deploying zero and near-zero emissions trucks and cargo-handling equipment is one of the core strategies proposed by the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, California, in the next version of the San Pedro Bay Ports Clean Air Action Plan.