It's been a busy few weeks for emissions regulations in trucking. The Department of Justice just backed off criminal prosecution of "diesel delete" cases. Days later, the Environmental Protection Agency took California down a peg or two on "smog checks," and announced plans to permanently end diesel derates.
It's clear the Trump administration doesn't really want to give truckers a hard time about emissions regs, but are truck drivers really ready to risk it?
Owner-operators who spoke to Overdrive previously about DOJ's move in particular said they still worried about civil penalties -- very much still on the table.
After EPA said it wanted to do away with diesel derates, after first issuing guidance in August to manufacturers to soften up the derate schedules, Overdrive caught up with another owner-op who has "deleted."
The owner opened up about risks and his reasons for making the difficult decision to bypass the truck's aftertreatment system.
"My truck is deleted," the owner said. "I paid $2,000 to have it done so I didn't have to pay $18,000 to replace my [emissions device] when it failed."
[Related: Aftertreatment demons: Keep your diesel emissions system clean to prolong life]
Indeed, aftertreatment "demons" -- persistent, sometimes inscrutable problems with emissions equipment -- have long plagued truck owners. Overdrive research shows readers ranking post-2010 emissions-specs trucks some of the least reliable, particularly with respect to aftertreatment systems.
This owner so hates the emissions controls that not only did he delete, he won't go to states like California that might seek to smoke-test what's coming out of his truck's stacks.
(Many emissions "deletes" are discoverable with nothing more than a diagnostic hook-up to the truck's computer, which was required by the aforementioned "smog check" rule of any truck hauling in California.)
DOJ "may no longer be criminalizing it and arresting people, but they're certainly still handing out fines," the owner said of the pullback from prosecutions. "I do not go to states that might be an issue for me."
And basically, he's stuck with the truck now. As other "deleted" owners have testified, many shops and dealers won't look twice at a truck that's been tampered with.
"I'm also aware that I have taken away all trade-in value on my truck because I cannot trade it in being deleted," the owner said.
[Related: Used-truck pricing, long-term value: Emissions-system PM could play increasing role]
The owner likes to drive, and maybe the equation just happened to pencil out for driving a deleted truck and enjoying more uptime and less-costly maintenance.
What about now that EPA has big plans to end derates due to DEF and other aftertreatment faults? He's not holding his breath for any truly big moves.
"I don't think we're gonna get away from DEF," the owner said. "I think the manufacturers have sunk so much money into it. It's here to stay."
On that front, he's likely right. An April 2024 report from ACT Research suggests experts are estimating the cost of the 2027 mandate at around $30,000 per Class 8 truck.
Add to that the stark political see-saw effect in this regulatory realm, likewise in different administrations' approach to non-citizen drivers, and the owner didn't put much stock in any potential demise of DEF -- a prospect in play after early Trump administration moves last year.
"Especially since each administration seems to undo what the previous one did," the owner said.
Still, it doesn't hurt to see the big regulators come down on the side of small business truckers, rare a sight as it may be.
"It was nice," the owner said of the EPA's recent moves.
[Related: DOJ's policy shift on diesel 'deletes': Owner-ops stay wary of civil enforcement]
Imagining for a moment a post-DEF world, this owner thought the stage could be set for the return of a fan favorite highway-truck engine: Caterpillar's.
"It would be nice to see Caterpillar back in the mix, though," the owner said. "There's no Caterpillar engines out here on the road because they're refusing to do DEF."
A recent Overdrive video (below) on why Caterpillar stopped building on-highway engines explains just that: How advancing emissions regs and vertically integrated trucking OEMs pushed the yellow-iron maker away from new on-highway truck engines.
Yet for the committed Caterpillar fan, there's always the reman option, as big Pride & Polish winner John Treadway's story showed recently.
