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By Frederick Kiel, Staff Reporter

This story appears in the July/August issue of Equipment & Maintenance Update, a supplement to the July 7 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.

California clean-air regulators propose to force all older highway trucks running within state boundaries to be retrofitted first with diesel particulate filters, costing $8,000 to $20,000 and more, and then with equipment that reduces output of nitrogen oxides, in a complicated, staggered schedule in effect from 2010 through 2022.

Erik White, an equipment engineer and chief of California Air Resources Boards’ Heavy-Duty In-Use Strategies Branch, told Equipment & Maintenance Update the latest plan seeks to encourage as many truckers as possible to buy new, compliant engine systems rather than retrofit.

The proposed regulation, a revision of an earlier draft, would reach across the spectrum of Class 8 operators, from the largest to the smallest business size — with initial focus on the oldest trucks — and target every tractor entering California, regardless of the state or country of domicile, as well as locally operated vehicles.

CARB’s goal is eventually to have all diesel-powered heavy-duty trucks within its control meet the federal 2010 standards for particulate matter and nitrogen oxides.

The earliest deadline is expected to fall most heavily on small-size operators.

“Small companies make up a great proportion of trucks on our roadways, and they tend to keep their trucks much longer than in other parts of the country,” White said.

Among the trucks affected would be those serving California’s maritime ports and those transferring loads across the U.S.-Mexican border — currently mostly Mexican-owned. Both sets of vehicles tend to be older models.

If the full Air Resources Board approves the revision, announced May 12, California-based truckers could receive some financial help.

Approval is expected later this year.

The proposal would make California the only state to force all pre-2010 trucks to comply with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s requirements for new engines.

Violators would face stiff fines.

White said California truckers would have to spend $3.6 billion to $5.5 billion to conform to the proposal, but he had no estimate for out-of-state operators.

As for retrofit costs, “most over-the-road trucks will be able to use filters that run in the $8,000-to-$10,000 range,” White said, “though some vehicles will require a somewhat different type of filter that is more expensive — $20,000.”

CARB also would require devices that reduce output of nitrogen oxides formed during combustion. White said he had no idea how much they would cost.

He did say CARB estimates regulatory compliance “will add less than a penny apiece to products hauled by these trucks that people buy, ranging from athletic shoes to television sets.”

CARB’s legal department said it had “no opinion” whether the state agency would have to seek a waiver from the federal government to apply this requirement to out-of-state trucks. White said CARB was proceeding on the assumption that its regulation would apply to any truck driving into California.

Federal officials said they could not comment on state regulations in the proposal stage.

Steve Needham, president of W.O. Saxton Trucking, Fowler, Calif., has 12 tractors, one older than 1994 and the rest dated from 1995 to 1998. He is an example of CARB’s primary target.

“The regulation is no good,” Needham said in an interview. “It’s just a way for the big man to take the little man out of business.”

Needham said that he has some trucks that would be able comply with retrofits costing $20,000 each. He does not know if he would qualify for a subsidy.

“I want to clean up, but the costs are so high, the only alternative is to shut down. [It’s] a legal way for the government to take over my company,” Needham said.

David Owen, president of the National Association of Small Trucking Companies, endorsed Needham’s opinion.

“From our point of view, this particulate rule is unconscionable for small carriers,” Owen said. “It absolutely discriminates against small trucking. Big companies can write capital off and do 10 other things that the small guy can’t.”

Owen also said the proposal “leads to a bigger question. . . . The interstate commerce clause of the Constitution puts some limits on what states could do in restraint of trade; this rule would effectively keep a lot of out-of-state trucks from entering California.”

Julie Sauls, spokeswoman for the California Trucking Association, called the agency’s proposal the “most aggressive approach taken yet.” Her group supported the goals but had strong reservations, she said.

“The requirement to use engine standards that have yet to be manufactured is a concern,” Sauls said. “No one knows how the engines coming on line in 2010 will perform. They’re placing a mandated criteria, and the equipment has not yet been manufactured yet.”

Sauls also said CTA demanded that the regulation apply to all trucks running in the state, not just those based in California.

“A lot of the impact on the California industry is that it may require folks to retire equipment long before their life span has truly expired,” Sauls said. “They are making an investment with the intent of getting a return on investment. That’s why a level playing field is necessary.”

She added, “We want to make sure that this regulation doesn’t stop at the border, because pollution doesn’t stop at the border.”

Manufacturers are testing models of 2010-compliant en-gines, but they are prototypes only and the technology remains subject to change.

Retrofitting subsidies are part of the plan but only for resident truck operators.

C&A Trucking, Cotati, Calif., has 25 tractors pulling flatbeds for the regional construction industry. Company President Brad Anderson had planned to have six trucks retrofitted in June.

“We applied for grants, and the state government told us we will get some money,” he said. “We don’t have the mechanical infrastructure to install them ourselves, so it’s pretty expensive.”

Anderson said that he will receive $24,000 per vehicle, just for the diesel particulate filter and its installation. He said he also believes the pending rule is pushing up costs.

“Since 100% of the trucks in each age group have to be in compliance, the price of retrofitting is skyrocketing all over California,” Anderson said.

CARB’s White said he had not heard reports of sharply rising retrofitting costs.

Because the requirements also would apply to visiting truckers, trucking groups in neighboring states are concerned.

“We had CARB over here in late February for an entire day,” Karen Rasmussen, president of the Arizona Trucking Association, said. “We’re closely watching the retrofit, but I don’t see it having that big an impact on our members because they tend to have newer trucks.”

On a national level, Todd Spencer, executive vice president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, also was not overly concerned.

“I can see where this regulation might affect those who live in California, where older trucks have remained very, very popular,” Spencer said. “A majority of our members drive late-enough model-year trucks where they won’t be crimped by this regulation. The vast majority of our members’ trucks are not older than six years old.”

However, Spencer thought that “because of this regulation and other reasons, many truckers will re-evaluate whether they want to operate in California.”

Ron Szapacs, maintenance specialist for Air Products & Chemicals Inc., Allentown, Pa., which has a fleet of 600 Class 8s to deliver its products nationally, said he does not believe the CARB regulation would affect his company.

“By the time that rule takes effect, we would have pretty much rotated out all the units that weren’t in compliance,” Szapacs said. “I can see it affecting a lot of owner-operators based in California and Arizona, where the weather doesn’t affect their trucks as much and they have a much, much longer life.”

News of the proposal has spread to trucking companies thousands of miles away, especially if they run to California.

“I have heard about the California retrofitting rule, though I don’t know much about the details,” said Jim Wilkins, director of flatbed operations for Prime Inc., Springfield, Mo. Prime is No. 34 on the Transport Topics 100 list of the largest for-hire carriers in the United States and Canada.

“We supportive of it despite the financial pain,” Wilkins said. “We understand the consequence if we’re not good stewards of our environment.”