Older truck engines in California are facing the end of the road

Due to the fact that at the end of the year in California should disappear part of the trucking, the state earlier this month took the next steps, which plans to take to 2035 to move to a drainage fleet with zero emissions.

The most pressing change that took place at the end of this year is that trucks manufactured with an engine model from 2007 to 2009 will no longer be allowed to operate at state ports and at railway stations. Engines have already been banned this year.

Separately, the California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) latest proposal calls for the phasing out of old trucks through a calendar and mileage. All this points to the achievement of the goal of the sunset in the lantern mode in about 13 years, that part State clean fleet rule.

The more pressing issue of phasing out engines between the 2007 and 2009 model years is what this will mean for bandwidth.

What is a drainage machine? CARB in material prepared for a recent webinar described it as a car weighing more than 26,000 pounds that crosses California’s seaports and railroad stations.

The amount of power loss that is looming could be considered as easy to calculate. But if you delve into the numbers, the question is more complicated.

While it typically affects the entire state, the focus will inevitably be on the giant ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

The Port of Los Angeles in a recent presentation identified the number of trucks that used two ports that also fall under the 2007-2009 ban: 1,925 with a 2007 engine, 2,279 with a 2008 engine and 1,314 with a 2009 engine. . Adding all the vehicles listed in the port’s capacity document will result in a figure just below 20,900. The number of vehicles to be removed from the tank will be around 26% to 27%.

But the port also shows the frequency of visits by engine year, indicating that not all trucks are the same.

For example, of the 1925 engines of 2007, only 135 are listed as frequent visitors to the port. An infrequent truck is defined as performing less than 10 average journeys per week. From 10 to 20 moves are “semi-frequent”, and more than 20 – “frequent”. Frequent visitors with engines in 2008 were 179 cars, and in 2009 – 106.

Thus, measuring load loss only by the number of trucks can be quantitatively simple, but more complex than qualitative.

For a truck with an engine of this old age, the driver can avoid the rules, at least for a while: buy a new or used car, even if it is not delivered early 2023.

Matt Shrap, general manager of the Harbor Freight Association, which represents drainage truck operators in the LA / Long Beach port complex, said the rule is structured so that as long as drainage truck owners can show evidence of orders to buy new trucks until the end per year, they can continue to run their engines from 2007 to 2009. No deadline, with what deadline, how fast the truck should be delivered after that.

Bandwidth after the new rule remains in question

Given these digital facts, the question remains: how will this affect power?

Shrap noted that one of the big factors is the strength of the freight market in 2023. “We may see a softening soon, so that may coincide with that,” he said in an interview with FreightWaves. “Maybe it’ll be a wash.”

He also expressed optimism that other machines are ready to step up and replenish lost power. “We have a large number of cars that meet the requirements,” Shrap said. “Will they be able to meet demand? Probably not so fast out of the gate. Does it affect the turning time? ”

According to Shrap, those companies or operators with old engines did not stand still. “There are vehicles that have been removed in this category and replaced with later models,” he said.

“On the one hand, you have a loss of power,” Shrap said, summing up the landscape. Discussing capacity loss, he noted that more than 70% of existing capacity remains.

“Will they be able to take the slack?” Said Shrap. “I think so. But will this lead to longer deadlines for receiving this cargo. “

Delays with the rule will not occur

One thing that won’t happen is delayed rules. At a recent webinar hosted by the Harbor Association for its members, Shrap showed a recent letter from a CARB official.

“We do not plan any full delays for the air carriers,” Carb Anderson, a CARB official, wrote in an email to Shrap. “As you know, t [current] drayage rule approaches later this year and these trucks will then have to comply [state’s] Rules of freight and bus transportation “. It is this rule that requires the gradual abandonment of engines by the 2010 model year.

Shap said during the webinar that he was displaying emails to counter the chatter he heard “on the spot” that there would be a delay. “I think they will stick to their weapons in this matter.”

The rule regarding cars of 2007-2009 is not new. It has been in the books since 2006, Shrap noted.

Although the drainage rule is looming by the end of the year, it is only one part of the CARB

continued efforts under the Clean Fleet Rule, which governs state action.

Operating trucks face a 13-year mileage of 800,000 miles

The next major piece of legislation facing the dragee community was released earlier this month. Like the elimination of engines by 2009, it is taking steps to bring the drainage community closer to the final plan so that by 2035 there is nothing but zero-emission vehicles in the drainage community.

This 2035 rule is considered the second step in state requirements. The first phase is a multi-stage process designed to eventually remove older and dirtier engines from the road according to the state definition of “useful life”.

One of the requirements is more short-term: new trucks that will enter the system after January 1, 2024, must be zero-emission vehicles, which means either battery or hydrogen.

But for existing trucks after the start of 2024, there are several new rules governing their “useful life”.

All trucks must visit a seaport or intermodal shipyard at least once a year to stay in accordance with the law of carriage. If the truck does not meet this requirement, it is ejected from the CARB-supported admissible vehicle database.

Over the years, other vehicles will be removed from the system.

The new rules, introduced earlier this month, impose a mileage limit of 800,000 miles on all truck engines, with a maximum of 18 years from the year the engine is allowed to be entered in the state register of accounts. Thus, if a truck after 18 years has traveled only 700,000 miles, it will still be removed from the register as soon as it is recorded in the system as reached 18 years. If it had reached 800,000 miles before the 18-year-old window, it would also have been removed.

If the truck is still on the road 13 years after the engine model year, the owner should start annually notifying CARB of the total mileage. If the 800,000-mile limit is fixed before the age of 13, even in the absence of reporting, the truck is deregistered.

Shrap said dredging trucks, which tend to move relatively close to a port or train station, typically travel 35,000 to 40,000 miles a year. Dredging trucks moving further, for example, from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to the warehouses of the Inner Empire of California, can travel from 70,000 to 80,000 miles.

What if a company wants to buy a zero-emission car, but is deterred by the price of a sticker that could easily be $ 400,000? Perhaps the state can help.

His hybrid zero-emission truck and bus promotion project, in its latest offering, has about $ 40 million available for the purchase of zero-emission vehicles. The latest offer of the program totals a little less than $ 200 million, other than cleaning, and the rest of that money goes to public and school buses. The last sentence started in March.

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