Truckers generally OK with new U.S. emissions standards

The Arkansas Trucking Association — as well as its national counterpart — are “cautiously optimistic” about new federal emissions standards that went into effect last week.

On Aug. 16, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration jointly released final standards for the second phase of a process begun in 2011. The standards call for reducing carbon emissions and improving fuel efficiency for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles.

President Barack Obama has made new emissions standards a priority of his administration, and with the phase one standards almost implemented, the agencies have set new, “ambitious yet achievable” goals for the trucking industry, as the release announced.

“The challenge of the administration to address the issue is not new. We’ve gone through a series of revised standards over the years,” said Arkansas Trucking Association President Shannon Newton.

She noted that while “the industry is certainly happy to do our part to help,” the standards come with costs for trucking companies. Her opinion of the 5,000 pages of released documents mirrored that of the American Trucking Associations.

“Anytime you say EPA it means cost,” said Butch Rice, president and CEO of Stallion Transportation Group in Beebe. “One of the last phases we went through to get the engines where they needed to be was about $10,000 per engine for us.” Bill Davis, president of Bill

Davis Trucking in Batesville, agreed.

“We went through several years of horrible maintenance costs with the other regulations,” Davis said. “Now it has gotten better, but it’s still not a perfect situation,” he said in reference to phase one of the standards.

As a result of the regulations, Newton said, the exhaust coming out of the trucks is cleaner than the air they take in.

The agencies predict that the final standards will lower carbon emissions by about 1.2 billion tons, save up to $170 billion in fuel costs and reduce oil consumption by up to two billion barrels over the applicable vehicles’ lifetimes. The regulations aim for 25 percent less carbon emissions and fuel consumption than the level reached by the phase one standards for Class 7 and 8 combination tractors and engines.

According to a July report from Michael Sivak and Brandon Schoettleat the University of Michigan, the percentage of transportation emissions coming from mediumand heavy-duty trucks has increased from 14.9 percent in 1990 to 22.5 percent in 2014. The categories represented about 4 percent of registered highway vehicles in the U.S. in 2014.

The standards for tractors and engines will be phased in beginning in 2021 until full implementation for vehicle model year 2027. This is the first time trailers will be subject to such standards.

The release projected that the typical buyer of a new long-haul truck in 2027 would make up the added cost from the emissions standards in fuel savings within two years.

“For phase one, the fruit was a lot lower on the tree, like simple engine and electrical adjustments, new oils and lubricants. For the most part the goals were accomplished easily on the engine side,” said Glen Kedzie, American Trucking Associations vice president, and energy and environmental counsel. “The EPA is kicking it up a notch in phase two. The fruit on the tree is very, very high. We might even be starting on a second tree now.”

“The higher up on the tree you go, the more expensive it is to engineer the solutions and the more money manufacturers are going to have to dedicate to research and development,” he said.

Chris Lee, vice president of systems engineering at Great Dane Trailers, said he believes the upfront costs to implement the standards will be slightly more than expected.

“It looks like we will need to apply all the tire technology and at least one aerodynamic technology during the first phase because the CO2 emissions regulations have become more stringent than anticipated,” Lee said.

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association places that estimated additional cost at an average of $14,000 per truck, as reported by USA Today.

“From what I understand in talking to truck salesmen and guys that work on engines, there’s pretty much nothing else they can do to the engine to make it cleaner,” Rice said. “Diesel trucks are cleaner than cars. It’s unbelievable the leaps and bounds we’ve taken in the last 10 years in that area.”

Other shifts in technology mentioned in the new standards might affect transmissions, axles, tire rolling resistance and tire pressure systems, weight distribution and aerodynamic technologies.

The biggest and quickest change the industry is moving toward, Rice said, is the automatic transmission, despite the added cost.

“Me personally, I think in 10 years it will be the norm to have an automatic because of the fuel efficiency. We’re doing it now — we’re buying automatics to help us with our miles per gallon,” Rice said. “If we can save a gallon and a half, that’s a lot of money over time.”

Rice estimated that an automatic transmission costs $4,000 more than a manual transmission, but because it removes room for human error by automatically shifting gears at the exact best moment, it ends up being more fuel efficient.

A June 2015, a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration fuel efficiency technology study found that 10-speed automatic manual transmissions increased fuel efficiency by 5 percent to 9 percent compared with 10-speed manual transmissions.

“All the trucks we’re ordering next week are going to be automatic,” Rice said. “That is the new wave of trucking — going to the automatic transmission.”

Davis added that some additional costs are generally passed down to consumers.

“I think it’s all very good and noble, and I’m against carbon emissions. But it doesn’t have to come at the cost of consumers, which is what happens. Trucks are now costing $150,000 because of the new technology,” Davis said.

None of Arkansas’ four publicly traded trucking companies — J.B. Hunt, ArcBest, USA Truck and PAM Transport — could be reached for comment.