Court kills CARB’s $30 reefer truck fee, but refrigeration unit rules intact
A California environmental regulation on diesel-powered truck refrigeration units (TRUs) that is set to expand on Dec. 31 will proceed without a registration fee after the California Trucking Association prevailed in a court battle against the fee.
The fee was to be only $30 per truck refrigeration unit (TRU). And its defeat does not change the fact that in other regards the next steps in the rule, known as the Airborne Toxic Control Measure for In-Use Diesel-Fueled Transportation Refrigeration Units, will take effect in less than two weeks.
The California Air Resources Board (CARB), which promulgated the regulation, refers to it as the TRU ATCM.
The push toward zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) in the state under two separate pieces of legislation will take two similar steps at the close of the year: All new trucks registered in the state’s drayage registry must be zero-emission vehicles, a requirement under the Advanced Clean Fleets (ACF) rule; and operators of refrigerated trucks — but not trailers — must start down the road to full zero-emission technology, part of the TRU ATCM.
In a question-and-answer document, CARB spells out the distinction it makes between trucks and trailers in the TRU ATCM: Truck TRUs are “diesel-powered refrigeration units that are mounted on or in a truck cargo box that is permanently attached to a truck.” CARB says that definition does not include detachable trailers.
The regulations regarding truck TRUs going into effect Dec. 31 are that fleets with four, five or six trucks must have at least one vehicle that is a ZEV. For fleets with seven or more trucks, 15% must be ZEVs.
This year’s requirements begin a progression that on Dec. 31, 2024, will ramp up to one ZEV for fleets with two, three or four trailers, two ZEVs for five- or six-truck fleets, and 30% ZEVs for fleets with seven or more trucks.
Mandates get stricter annually until a 2029 requirement. At that point, it’s effectively a 100% mandate: one ZEV for a one-truck fleet and two ZEVs for a two-truck fleet, rising to six for six and 100% for fleets with seven or more vehicles. (The CARB compliance table has one through six vehicles as separate categories but it’s all one rule by 2029).
As for trailers, containers and rail cars, no new operating mandates for refrigerated trailers go into effect Dec. 31 now that the $30 fee has been put on the shelf. However, there is a new requirement impacting out-of-state TRUs that operate in California: They now must report their TRUs to the state.
Source: freightwaves.com
