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Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/897934
27 Sales & Marketing these are the trailers that the new [Phase 2] rules would affect." The organization also added, "Trail- ers used in short haul and local delivery operations travel mostly at lower speeds and would gain no benefi t from EPA's mandated equipment. In fact, the added weight of the EPA mandated equipment will decrease fuel effi ciency in these operations." The near last-minute appeals court decision also has impacted the supply chain for these technologies. Customer interest in Phase 2's required products are strong in the dry van and reefer mar- kets — with adoption rates at or surpass- ing 50 percent for some products — but having purchased inventory to install them on all units, it's likely trailer manu- facturers will require several months to use the products they now have on hand. Before the pause was announced Giesen said most long box trailer cus- tomers were accepting of the new rule because the upfront cost was minimal. He said Stoughton had offered to move customers' Q1 builds into Q4 ahead of the regulation, but that while "everyone appreciated that we asked, no one really took us up on it." No longer beholden to a Federal rule, there's no telling if those opinions will change. There's also the question of part two of Phase 2. January's trailer regulations were to be the foundation for a series of additional trailer regulations to be imple- mented over the next decade. "The standards increase in stringency in model years 2021 and 2024, with fi nal standards in model year 2027," the EPA wrote last year in its Final Rule. "The fully phased-in trailer standards achieve up to 9 percent lower CO2 emissions and fuel consumption compared to an aver- age model year 2017 trailer." There's now no guarantee that any aspect of Phase 2 will see the light of day. The EPA's response to October's court decision was minimal, and EPA Adminis- trator Scott Pruitt hinted back in August in response to TTMA's lawsuit that Phase 2's trailer regulations were on thin ice. "We intend to initiate a rulemak- ing process that incorporates the latest technical data and is wholly consistent with our authority under the Clean Air Act," he said. W W W . T R U C K P A R T S A N D S E R V I C E . C O M N o v e m b e r 2 0 1 7 | T R U C K P A R T S & S E R V I C E Quality Reliability Service firestoneip.com The Firestone brand is internationally known and respected. We are the industry leader with a large base of customers. So whether you're looking for OEM, aftermarket or industrial application solutions, you can trust Firestone's quality, reliability and unparalleled service. FI17007_TPService_halfpage_Nov.indd 1 10/19/17 9:37 AM Untitled-26 1 11/1/17 8:51 AM