A great story in the California-based Porterville Record highlighted the difficulties being faced by a particluar 5-truck fleet in Ducor, Calif., Andromeda Transport, owned by Dave Schwartz. Schwartz (pictured, right, with his mechanic), as he told reporter Sarah de Crescenzo, considers himself a “modern-day environmentalist” in his commitment to keeping his older trucks in tip-top operating 
But his five vehicles’ powertrains are all of sufficient age that, come 2011, they’ll be illegal without retrofit if the current Truck & Bus rule from the California Air Resources Board stays in effect, requiring most pre-2007 engines to be retrofit with diesel particulate filters. Schwartz’s five trucks puts Andromeda just above the threshold required for the small-fleet exemption to the reg through 2014 for fleets of three trucks or less. It’s not an inexpensive proposition.
As Crescenzo wrote, “Between $40,000 and 50,000 would suffice for a retrofit, Schwartz estimated, to get one of his trucks up to standard.” Click the thumbnail of the Record photo above for the full story.
I reported on the rules that were coming down the pike for 2010, including retrofit options, in Overdrive’s October 2009 issue here.
