Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/47076
of the timelines and compliance schedules," he says. Rajkovacz says he's taken calls from operators who have quit hauling to California because of the reg- ulatory environment. "Guys have to make serious choices by the end of the year if California is going to be part of their business model," Rajkovacz says, "or they could find themselves facing much earlier com- pliance deadlines." other cases they're not looking at the full picture. In some cases they're flat out ignoring the reality." Shaw gives the example of CARB's research under- pinning the requirement for trailer aerodynamic devices. The agency says that trailer skirt fuel econ- omy benefits are based on trucks driving at freeway speeds 84 percent of the time in the state. "I don't know if they've driven in Los Angeles, but most pas- senger cars can't drive at freeway speeds 84 percent of the time," he says. Scott Blevins, president of Mountain Valley Express, says his fleet's GPS units calculate average truck speed at 48 mph. Furthermore, research shows that the skirts achieve the tested fuel efficiency at 62 mph. Yet the speed limit for trucks in the state is 55 mph, Shaw notes. In formulating its rules, CARB has imposed numer- ous amendments and deadline changes that have often confused truckers, says Joe Rajkovacz, director of regulatory affairs at the Owner-Operator Indepen- dent Drivers Association. "It's not surprising to me there's not the awareness in the trucking community READY WHEN IT RAINS When it rains, it pours for California carriers. If they don't have their hands full with trucking regulations, they also have to pay atten- tion to the weather. The federal Clean Water Act regulates discharges of pollutants into U.S. waters. In California the authority to regulate storm water runoff is handled by the State Water Resources Control Board and regional water quality control boards. Facilities such as carrier terminals and truckstops are required to comply with the state regulations, which include monitoring runoff when it rains, filing a col- lection and testing plan, and documenting the results. Scott Blevins of Mountain Valley Express says the com- pany tests water that runs off at its different locations. The company is required to buy a permit for each of its locations. "We've proven we're not a polluter," Blevins says. "When does the test- ing requirement go away?" Blevins says he has a vice president of maintenance and environmental affairs who is dedicated to matters such as storm water runoff monitoring. "If you don't have someone on top of that every day and they show up for a surprise inspection, they'll nail you every which way they can, and the fines are very substantial." DECEMBER 2011 TRUCKERS NEWS 17 Debra Dunn, president of the Oregon Trucking Association, says it's hard for carriers to ignore Cali- fornia because of its $1.8 trillion economy. "If they could've turned over their fleets in the normal pro- cess of doing business, they would've preferred it that way than being required to do it in any one state." CARB has done a good job at involving trucking in the rulemaking process, says Tony Brasil, chief of the heavy duty diesel implementation branch of the agency. He says in advance of the state- wide truck and bus rule, CARB mailed postcards to 180,000 fleets registered in the state, as well as state trucking groups and the American Trucking Associa- tions. The agency schedules workshops across the state and presents webcasts The California Trucking Association's Michael Shaw questions some of the numbers and assumptions CARB used in developing its rules affecting trucking companies. of those sessions. It also meets with individual fleets to go over financials and business practices, he says. It maintains an information line at (866) 634-3735 and a website devoted to useful information for truck fleets: http://arb.ca.gov/truckstop. "It's a fairly compre- hensive way to let people know we're working on a rule, what the rule is shaping up to look like, and we've adjusted rules considerably based on the feed- back we get." Brasil acknowledges that meeting emissions stan- dards forces many companies to change how they do business and spend money doing it. He says the agency tries to accommodate a company that needs more time to meet a deadline. Grants have been made available to help companies shoulder part of the cost of retrofits or new vehicles, although some of those resources have run out. "We try to build in a number of things when we MAX KVIDERA