Cleaner Trucks Initiative comment period ends Feb. 20

With less than one week left in the public comment period, OOIDA is urging its members to provide the Environmental Protection Agency feedback on its Cleaner Trucks Initiative.

OOIDA sent a Call to Action to its more than 160,000 members.

“OOIDA encourages its members to provide feedback on the proposal, including information about reliability, serviceability, and warranties,” the Association wrote. “Make sure EPA knows the problems you have encountered with emissions systems and the impact they have had on your business, including expensive visits to dealers, lost productivity, poor efficiency, or the cost to tow downed trucks.

“If EPA is going to avoid the mistakes of the past, they need to know exactly what impact new requirements may have on truckers.”

The proposal

The EPA’s advance notice of proposed rulemaking, which aims to create the framework for “new emissions standards for oxides of nitrogen and other pollutants for highway heavy-duty engines, published in the Federal Register on Jan. 21. Comments must be received on or before Feb. 20.

OOIDA has been involved in the process to ensure that the voice of small-business truckers is heard before the EPA makes a formal proposal. Specifically, OOIDA hopes to convince the EPA to avoid repeating the mistakes of past emissions-reduction initiatives that led to unreliable trucks hitting the market.

The EPA said it has assembled a team to gather scientific and technical data needed to inform the agency’s notice of proposed rulemaking.

“We intend the Cleaner Trucks Initiative to be a holistic rethinking of emission standards and compliance,” the notice said.

How to comment on the Cleaner Trucks Initiative

For those who are not sure where to start, OOIDA provides a comment guide for more information about what issues and experiences to mention in your public comments. The comment guide includes examples of previous problems regarding reliability, warranties and serviceability.

“Did you experience failures with previous emissions technologies? Make sure EPA knows the problems you’ve encountered and the impact they had on your business,” OOIDA wrote. “If EPA is going to avoid the mistakes of the past, they need to know exactly what impact new requirements may have on truckers.”

Comments may be made here.

“Go on there, and fire off your comments,” OOIDA Executive Vice President Lewie Pugh said. “This is your chance to tell them how you feel. Be professional, as always, but don’t hold back. Tell them what happened.”