2009-01-07: Keep trucking profits from going up in smoke    

Keep trucking profits from going up in smoke

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 07, 2009

Diesel TEK Inc. offers a cost effective solution to increase mileage and lengthen the life of truck engines, even in the face of soaring fuel costs. Diesel TEK Engine Flush Service and Diesel TEK Fuel Additive are the two parts of the good maintenance program that the company is offering.

Engine Flush Service removes the diesel particulate matter to improve engine efficiency and reduce wear and tear, while Fuel Additive causes the fuel to burn longer and cleaner, and adds lubrication.

Diesel TEK Inc.

www.dieseltek.com

2009-01-06: Improve Efficiency    

Engine Flush Service and Fuel Additive

Improve Efficiency

Diesel TEK Inc. offers a cost-effective solution to increase mileage and lengthen the life of truck engines, even in the face of soaring fuel costs. Diesel TEK Engine Flush Service and Diesel TEK Fuel Additive are the two parts of the good maintenance program that the company is offering. Engin Flush Service removes the diesel particulate matter to improve engine efficiency and reduce wear and tear.

2008-12-14: Keep trucking profits from going up in smoke    

Keep trucking profits from going up in smoke

December 2008

Diesel TEK Inc. offers a cost effective solution to increase mileage and lengthen the life of truck engines, even in the face of soaring fuel costs. Diesel TEK Engine Flush Service and Diesel TEK Fuel Additive are the two parts of the good maintenance program that the company is offering.

Engine Flush Service removes the diesel particulate matter to improve engine efficiency and reduce wear and tear, while Fuel Additive causes the fuel to burn longer and cleaner, and adds lubrication.

Diesel TEK Inc.
www.dieseltek.com
Circle No. 107

2008-12-11: State could get tough on dirty diesels    

State could get tough on dirty diesels

State's Air Resources Board will vote on costly measures to limit big-rig pollution.

By Margot Roosevelt, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
December 11, 2008

Two decades ago, Rosa Vielmas, young and hopeful, moved to Riverside County for cleaner air. Goodbye to smoggy East Los Angeles. Hello to Mira Loma, an unincorporated speck of a village, and a one-story stucco bungalow with a yard. "We could see the stars," she recalled.

The complete article can be viewed at: by clicking here.

2008-12-11: California air board adopts a sweeping plan to curb greenhouse gases     

California air board adopts a sweeping plan to curb greenhouse gases

The comprehensive blueprint for fighting global warming, the first in the nation, would cut the state's emissions by 15% within 12 years. It targets virtually every sector of the economy.

By Margot Roosevelt, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
December 11, 2008

Reporting from Sacramento — California regulators today adopted the nation's first comprehensive plan to slash greenhouse gases, offering it as a model for President-elect Barack Obama, who has pledged an aggressive effort on the national and international stages to combat global warming.

The complete article can be viewed at: by clicking here.

2008-11-10: Trucking Info - Shop & Tools    

Shop & Tools

Diesel Tek™ Offers Engine Flush Service and Fuel Additive.

11/10/2008
Diesel Tek™, Las Vegas, is offering its engine flush service and fuel additive as parts of its maintenance program.

The engine flush service removes diesel particulates that are too small to be caught by the average oil filter, according to the company. This improves engine efficiency and reduces wear and tear, while the fuel additive causes the fuel to burn longer and cleaner, and adds lubrication.

The benefits of the engine flush, according to the company, include reduction of emissions and better mileage. The cleaning solution consists of a light lubricating oil with the same detergents you would find in a high-grade motor oil, only concentrated seven times higher. Once run through the trucks, the cleaning fluid can be disposed of right along with waste oil. The process takes half an hour.

More info: www.dieseltek.com

2008-10-24: New California rules target big-rig pollution    

New California rules target big-rig pollution.

The draft measures from the state Air Resources Board would affect more than 1 million heavy-duty diesel trucks. They are scheduled to take effect in 2010.

By Margo Roosevelt, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
October 24, 2008

California's Air Resources Board on Friday released long-awaited draft rules to clean up big-rig pollution that can aggravate asthma, cancer and heart disease.

The complete article can be viewed at: by clicking here.

2008-08-20: Port of Long Beach's clean-trucks loan program is criticized    

Port of Long Beach's clean-trucks loan program is criticized

The plan to replace old, polluting rigs with cleaner ones will put low-income drivers deep in debt, a coalition of groups says

By Louis Sahagun, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
August 20, 2008

A coalition of consumer, immigrant and civil rights groups warned Tuesday that a Port of Long Beach loan program to help thousands of mostly low-income truck drivers replace old, polluting rigs with newer, cleaner-burning vehicles could plunge the truckers into debt.

Port officials counter that the loans are a bargain and that truckers would not be able to afford new rigs without them. But the coalition foresees a wave of "foreclosures on wheels."

In a prepared statement, Julian Bond, chairman of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, compared the plight of independent port drivers to "farmers in America's Deep South, who worked other people's land for a share of the harvest."

"The worries of the drivers hauling containers don't include washed out fields, rotten seeds or infestations of locusts," Bond said. "Instead, their survival is at risk from spikes in the cost of diesel fuel, burdensome truck maintenance and repair costs, or tires blown from carrying overweight containers on hot summer days."

A coalition report condemning the program arranged by Mercedes-Benz/Daimler Truck Finance was expected to be delivered today to the German Embassy in Washington and to Daimler headquarters in Farmington Hills, Mich.

Under terms of the lease-to-loan program, Daimler has promised to back funding for low-emissions trucks worth more than $100,000 to any independent operator, the report said.

The report also alleged that Daimler predicted many drivers would not be able to make payments and that the company has a strong record of debt collection. Daimler officials could not be reached for comment.

Members of the coalition include the League of United Latin American Citizens, the Consumer Federation of California and the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy.

The coalition urged the port to convert its loan program to one similar to the system Daimler created for the Port of Los Angeles.

In that plan, which is strongly supported by the Teamsters and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, investments in new trucks will be handled by trucking companies that employ their drivers. In Long Beach, by comparison, individual drivers are being asked to invest in new trucks.

Port of Long Beach spokesman Art Wong said the coalition "had it wrong" with its criticism. He said that the loan program, which requires payments of $500 to $1,000 per month for seven years, was worth about $60,000 to $70,000 for participating drivers. "That's practically giving these trucks away," he said.

The loan programs, which are voluntary, are part of a $2-billion Clean Trucks Program adopted by both ports to slash diesel truck emissions by as much as 80%.

Achieving that goal has been daunting. The coalition's involvement added to the uncertainty facing truckers already overloaded with information, restrictions, mandates, fees and deadlines related to the implementation of the clean trucks program.

Authorities at both ports on Tuesday blamed general confusion for the low number of drivers now expected to submit applications for vehicle loans by the Sept. 4 deadline.

"It's very confusing," said Max Palma, a port driver. "A lot of truckers have no idea what's going on with all these different plans and protests, so they're just going with the flow."

louis.sahagun@latimes.com

2008-07-25: California adopts stiff pollution rules for ships    

California adopts stiff pollution rules for ships

California mandates that oceangoing vessels use cleaner fuels or face costly fines. The shipping industry is displeased.

By Margot Roosevelt, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
July 25, 2008

California regulators adopted the world's toughest pollution rules for oceangoing vessels Thursday, vowing to improve the health of coastal residents and opening a new front in a long battle with the international shipping industry.

The rules, which take effect in 2009, would require ships within 24 nautical miles of California to burn low-sulfur diesel instead of the tar-like sludge known as bunker fuel. About 2,000 vessels would be affected, including container ships, oil tankers and cruise ships.

International negotiators have struggled for decades to reduce pollution from oceangoing vessels but have been stymied by opposition from shipping conglomerates.

Federal legislation to control vessel emissions in U.S. ports, sponsored by Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, both California Democrats, has been opposed by the Bush administration, which favors deferring to future international regulations.

California's new regulation will have a global effect: 43% of all marine freight imported into the United States, much of it from Asia, moves through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

California "needs to act now," Air Resources Board Chairwoman Mary Nichols said. "We've known for years that a large percentage of onshore pollution comes from activities in the water. Our ports need to expand and modernize, but the adjacent communities are not willing to tolerate the health risks."

The rules could save 3,600 lives in coastal communities over the first six years through reduced respiratory illnesses and heart disease, including a potential 80% drop in cancer risk associated with ship pollutants, according to regulators.

Nichols called the shipping regulation "the single most significant rule the Air Resources Board has adopted in the last five years."

Because prevailing winds blow from west to east in California, ship exhaust accounts for about a fifth of cancer-causing soot particles and half of the sulfur oxides over land.

The remainder is emitted by diesel-powered trucks, construction equipment, locomotives, industrial engines and agricultural pumps, which are all to be subject to stricter regulation as the state seeks to slash the emission of planet-warming greenhouse gases and other pollutants.

The air board estimates that the new shipping rules will save Californians at least $6 billion a year in health-related expenses and will cost the shipping industry between $140 million and $360 million a year.

A typical cargo ship would pay about $30,000 more in fuel costs for each visit, or about $6 per container shipped from Asia to California. That amounts to 0.1 cent per pair of sneakers, the board noted.

Environmentalists and community groups praised the rules.

"This is a huge victory for clean air and public health," said Candice Kim of the Coalition for Clean Air. "Ten Californians die every day due to air pollution from ports and freight transportation."

Shippers fiercely oppose the limits, saying that California lacks jurisdiction to regulate beyond the 3-mile limit of state waters, and that low-sulfur fuel is in short supply, particularly in Asian ports.

The San-Francisco based Pacific Merchant Shipping Assn. last year won a court victory halting the state's previous effort to control shipping pollution by regulating engine emissions. The air board believes that a fuel regulation will stand up to a court challenge, but John McLaurin, the shipping association's president, wrote the board this week that the regulation "simply rehashes and represents old arguments that have already failed to pass judicial muster."

The rules would "govern the internal operation of foreign vessels . . . require the ships to purchase the required fuel in foreign ports, and, in many cases, to retrofit their tanks, piping and engines," McLaurin wrote.

It was unclear Thursday whether the shipping industry would challenge the regulations in court.

California's rule would be implemented in two phases. Beginning July 1, 2009, shippers would be required to use diesel oil with a sulfur limit of 0.5%. On Jan. 1, 2012, that would be reduced to 0.1% sulfur, a level that would cut soot by 83%, sulfur oxides by 95% and nitrogen oxides by 6%.

By contrast, the United Nations' International Maritime Organization allows fuel that is 4.5% sulfur. IMO negotiators will meet in October and are expected to consider new limits, but those would not take effect until 2015 or later.

Shippers asked that the California board defer any action until international rules take effect. In a compromise, the board voted Thursday to allow its executive director to suspend California's regulation "if and when the IMO or the federal government adopts a rule as effective as California's," Nichols said.

Meanwhile, fines for noncompliance would be stiff. Vessels using fuel over the sulfur limit would pay a fee beginning at $45,500 for each visit, with a maximum of $227,500 on the fifth visit.

"In theory, a vessel that makes 10 calls to California would be subject to paying $1,365,000 the first year, and $2,275,000 each subsequent year," the shipping association protested.

Board officials said that international law allows California to regulate ship emissions as long as they affect its residents. The board's scientists studied pollution effects out to the 3-mile limit, the 12-mile limit and the 24-mile limit, and found that "emissions from 24 miles out directly impact the majority of our population," Nichols said.

Representatives of the Navy have expressed concern that vessels would be more likely to travel through their offshore testing and training range once the rule is implemented. But Air Resources Board staff pledged to work with Navy officials to address their concerns.

margot.roosevelt@latimes.com