Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/52908
Feedback Cars not trucks: California's dirty truth C alifornia cities and counties dominate the "dirtiest-air" list in the American Lung Association's 2011 State-of-the-Air report. The dirty air isn't from big trucks, and I'm not the only one who says so (but I can't find an authoritative quote — and I know they exist because I've read them — to back up that claim, and I have to go pick up a load soon, so I don't have time to look). Consider: The ALA's report says Salinas, Calif., (where Bobby McGee "slipped away") has some of the nation's cleanest air; it also has heavy big-truck traffic due to its massive produce market. The California Air Resources Board's continued focus on big- truck exhaust is beyond merely misguided; it's insane. In heavily polluted areas like Los Angeles, the newer trucks actually clean the air: emit cleaner air than they take in. With time, as motor carriers replace older trucks with newer ones, big-truck pollution issues will simply cease to exist. This won't happen overnight — it can't — but it is happening. In other words, Class 8 engine makers have solved the attendant pollution problems; it's just a matter of time now as motor car- riers replace older trucks. California's well-documented, severe and health-degrading air- pollution problems are caused by too many cars, too many people and too much industry. But to address these causes, the state would have to just about tear down and rebuild its $1.8 trillion economy and its citizens' fundamental lifestyles, which are car-based. In the 1960s pop hit, "Do You Know the Way to San Jose?" Di- onne Warwick sang, "LA is a great, big freeway. Put a hundred down and buy a car." California has yet to outgrow that outdated and unhealthy mentality. Until it does — and until it becomes willing sur- render its high-dollar industry (California is by far the lead- ing military contractor state) in favor of cleaning up its air — I WHAT ARE YOUR FEELINGS ON THE NEW HOURS-OF-SERVICE RULE? | VIA FACEBOOK | Every driver should set a minimum gross and time at home for the year, and if a company cannot meet these minimums then it's time to find one that will. This puts the ball in the company's court to make sure that if laws lower available time to work then the company will have to increase pay and/or decrease layover, increase miles or pay for all wait time for drivers. The non-truck-driving community messed things up yet again. Put these lawmakers behind the wheel with dispatchers that think 6 | TRUCKERS NEWS | FEBRUARY 2012 you should be at the delivery when you just left the shipper. They may just change their minds Final straw. I've been doing this for 20 years and I'm out of here. Without split break, they can kiss my a--. Truck drivers do what truck drivers do to get the job done that's expected of truck drivers, within reason, of course. I am not a member of the Hours of Service B---- and Whine Club. Never have been, never will be. The true professionals of this industry are a dying breed. That's just one of the reasons why I retired from trucking. I got tired of being dispatched on loads that were "late right out of the gate" and physically impossible to deliver on time. FMCSA seems to have very little concern for the way four-wheeler traffic operates around commercial vehicles. New hours- of-service rules will have very little effect on highway safety, if any at all. With more and more traffic on the road every year, they can regulate us all into bankruptcy, and highway safety will not have been changed one little bit. They need a guess its air resources board will continue to psychotically place blame for the state's hazardous air everywhere and anywhere— leaf blowers, Weed Eaters and lawn mowers? Please! Please! — except where it belongs: on the state's 30-plus million citizens whose car-based lifestyles and industry-based incomes create massive air pollution. Andy Haraldson Boca Raton, Fla. SOUND OFF TWEET US: Hit up Twitter page at twitter. com/truckersnews to provide quick and easy feedback in 140 characters or less. SUBMIT A LETTER: Send letters to , Attn: Randy Grider, 3200 Rice Mine Road NE, Tuscaloosa, AL, 35406, or rgrider@randallreilly.com. T ruck er s Ne w s T Ne w s ' ruck er s — Michael O . — Rile y M. — Joe P . — James J . — L ee W . C ontinued on page 8