Clean air rules costly for trucking

The Clean Diesel Trucks and Buses Rule requires trucks to use ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel beginning in October, a fuel that O&S Trucking President Jim O’Neal said will lead to higher costs for him.

“The difficulty is that the pipeline of that product is contaminated,” O’Neal said. “The sulfur from the prior fuel contaminates the new fuel, so there’s going to be a distribution challenge there. I think we’re going to see spot shortages and extremely high price volatility on the diesel side until those things get straightened out.”

Another challenge is the fuel itself; the new fuel forces engines to work harder, which leads to lower fuel economy and more money spent on fuel to get the same distance.

The new fuel, O’Neal said, will combine to create another impact: an increase in the price of diesel fuel.

“Anything that changes the supply-demand chain makes prices go up,” he said. “There’s scarcity, there’s an emotion factor sometimes, and in this case there’s going to be a logistical challenge in getting this (fuel) where it needs to be.”

Despite the changes, and the challenges that come with those changes, O’Neal said he is fully aware of how important clean air is. After all, he said, the trucking industry’s pollution emissions have been reduced by 99.99 percent since 1973.

See SBJ’s May 29 issue for more on environmental issues, including the new trucking regulations.[[In-content Ad]]