Proposition 1B Funds for CARB Compliance

Six local air districts have received funds from the California Air Resources Board to be used to retrofit trucks running through certain trade corridors.

Trucks operating primarily in the Bay Area, the Central Valley, Los Angeles, the Inland Empire and the San Diego border corridors may be eligible for replacement or engine repower.

Additionally, owners of fleets with fewer than 40 trucks might be eligible for loan assistance without the Proposition 1B restriction of operating in specific trade corridors.

Proposition 1B, or the Highway and Port Safety and Air Quality Bond Act, was passed in 2006 by California voters. It authorizes the State of California to borrow up to 19.925 billion dollars, in the form of general obligation bonds, to “relieve congestion, improve the movement of goods, improve air quality, and enhance the safety and security of the transportation system.”

For more information on the Proposition 1B loan program, go to: www.caclutchandgear.com/1B.

CARB Delays Low Rolling Resistance Tires Implementation

CARB has clarified their LRR tire requirements for 2010 and older model-year tractors.

According to CARB’s webpage, “affected tractors must use new or retread SmartWay verified tires by January 1, 2013. However, if a non-compliant tire was manufactured or retreaded before January 1, 2013, it may be used through the useful tread life or until January 1, 2015, whichever comes first.”

You can read the update from CARB at:

www.caclutchandgear.com/LLRUPDATE

Navistar Posts Q2 Loss

Navistar International Corporation posted a 2nd quarter loss of $374 million. Company officials attributed the loss to lackluster sales and higher-than-expected warranty costs. The truck segment was responsible for $109 million of the loss.

As a result, Standard & Poor’s Rating Service  down-graded the company’s stock from B to B-.

Tuscon’s Inland “Port” Received International Freight

Nearly a decade ago, a privately owned inland “port,” working with Union Pacific Railway, began shipping and receiving domestic freight.

In late May, this same port received a shipment from Asia, marking the ports entry into the world of international shipping.

Relying on rail, such a system bypasses the need to ship the containers from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach by truck, and bypassing California’s CARB diesel regulations.

CARB Cracking Down on Port Freight Loophole

timthumb  The California Air Resources Board is going to crack down on so-called “dray-off” activities. A dray-off is when a port-regulations-compliant truck transfers its load to a non-compliant truck.

Drayage trucks, trucks that are carrying intermodal freight from ports or rail yards, have been subject to more stringent, and earlier enforced regulation than other freight trucks.

It became common for compliant trucks to move in and out of ports and rail yards and transfer their freight to non-compliant trucks outside of the ports.

Amendments to the Drayage Truck Regulations made the transfer of drayage from compliant to non-compliant trucks illegal within the borders of the state of California.

   While these amendments have been in place for some time, reporting of dray-offs relied mostly on informants calling CARB. In 2012, CARB performed more than 3600 inspections on trucks suspected of dray-offs, which resulted in 261 citations.    

Out-of-State Operators Counseled to Stay Out of California

“If you only derive a small percentage of your revenue from California, consider no longer operating there,” is how Ken Rutherford’s OverdriveOnline.com column started.

Rutherford went on to state several reasons why out-of-state operators would find it difficult to run a profit in California:

  • CARB-certified retrofits on 1996-2006 trucks can const $15,000 to $20,000.
  • Retrofitted trucks can lose up to ½ mile per gallon in fuel mileage.
  • 2007 and newer trucks can cost twice as much per mile in maintenance than 2004 and earlier trucks and suffer from increased down time.

California Environmental Regs Squeezing Out Owner-Operators

Owner-operators are being slowly squeezed out of the California market, according to a panel discussion at the 2013 Fleet Executive Conference in Las Vegas.

Prices for compliant used trucks can get as high as $100,000 for trucks with 250,000 miles or more, but only about 10-percent of owner-operators can qualify for such a loan.

Meanwhile, trucks older than 2007 model year, trucks that will no longer be compliant, are plummeting in value on the used truck market.

The result is that the owner-operator model in California is becoming economically unfeasible.