California Construction Trucking Association (CCTA)

As 2012 grinds to a close, I now regularly look back and think about my year and I’m glad that it is almost over. Optimism these days is a thoughtful commodity; four or five months ago Lee talked me into sharing issues associated with my heath that at first I did not really want to disclose. He thought I should share it, so I reluctantly agreed and thought it time for an update.

If you missed the annual board meeting in San Diego, we got some important work done and also had a great time. We had our annual meeting at the same place and time as the California Tow Truck Association. The Western States Tow Show was also held at the same time and it was very interesting. We saw many heavy-duty recovery demonstrations and some equipment manufacturers had heavy-wreckers costing nearly $500,000.

The summer is quickly coming to an end and I have to admit that I’m feeling some of the effects of my age. I say this not only because time is flying by at an incredible rate but also because I turned 60 this year.

This brings me to an important subject that most of us don’t want to think about but should and that is age and its effects on how we preform within our profession.

So does age slow our reaction time while driving?

As the summer draws to a seasonal slow-down, we are also closing in on another election year in California and across this nation. The groups behind three of the four propositions to increase taxes have been running their propaganda in support of Propositions 30 (Brown), 38 (Munger) and 39 (Perez).
Prop 30 is our illustrious Governor Jerry “Moonbeam” Brown’s attempt to squeeze more sales and income tax money out of our pockets to give more, supposedly, to schools (our kids), but we all know it will be going to pay for lavish police, fire and over-paid academic administrators pensions and benefits. We seem to throw billions upon billions of dollars at these union entities and they never seem to get enough money.

I want to thank everyone for their support both spiritually and financially while my wife and I have been dealing with my cancer relapse. The funds raised for us at the Annual Meeting have been very helpful to us.
It has been two months since I went into the hospital for 19 days and even though I have had the last test called a PET scan to see if any cancer is left in my body, as I write this, I haven’t found out the results of the test. Incidentally, PET stands for “positron emission tomography” scan; it is an imaging test that uses a radioactive substance called a tracer to look for disease in the body.

I’m sorry to let you all know that I am not able to attend the upcoming June board meeting or write my usual monthly article due to my recent cancer treatments. Nothing is easy as they say and cancer for sure isn’t at all.

The truth is that over the last three or four months I have been fortunate to get some successful chemotherapy, and extensive treatment pre-qualification tests. Most recently we were able to harvest of my own AD 34 autologous stem cells that hopefully won’t cause any rejection problems as part of my cancer treatment.

I have been in the trucking business since October 1 1973—isn’t it funny how some dates stick in your head. I remember being tired of college and since I had been around construction and heavy equipment all of my life, I thought I’ll get into the dump truck business.
My first truck was a 1980 Brockway 2 axle tractor. Most people with the exception of a few of us old guys have never heard of this brand and honestly I think they were out of business by the time I bought it. The two years I owned it gave me a real education  in what I wanted and what

I didn’t want to do with a truck but it was cheap and old and gave me my start.

By Fred Martine

I hope you have reported with CARB (those of you that have to) and done your related homework (ECL and PSIP) correctly because the reporting extension deadline will be past (March 30) by the time you read this article. We have not been given any additional extension on the reporting deadline, nor is another extension likely.

I continue to be amazed by people in our industry that don’t think CARB can force or enforce this rule on us all.  Get your heads out of the sand, because of short of a victory in the courts, the road ahead is all about compliance.
The lawsuit we filed against CARB in federal court early last year continues. We wait for a decision for the case that concluded in early February, about 60-days ago. In the meantime, we all must follow CARB’s on-road truck and bus rule and comply with the timetable for the model year engine in your power unit. Those of you with more than three trucks, depending of the ages of the engines, should have 20 percent of your fleet in compliance on January 1, of this year – three months ago.
I strongly suggest that if you are unsure when you must install a diesel particulate filter (DPF) or replace your truck, that you get help from a consultant such as Sean Edgar at Cleanfleets. Regulatory compliance is somewhat more complicated the larger your fleet is and probably worth a long call to CARB or even a consulting fee from a third party.

As the March 30th CARB reporting deadline looms, I hope you take the appropriate actions which best fit your business. Remember with as much information as everyone has been given, the ultimate responsibility belongs to you, the truck owner. When and if CARB steps up enforcement, they will be making you responsible for your compliance and me for mine. The truck brokers will have a certain degree of liability too.

Please make sure you fully understand the On-road Diesel Truck and Bus rule as it pertains to your engine model year, its Engine Control Label (ECL) and even smoke testing if you have two or more trucks. Link below is CARB's information on how to look for our ECL.

The income tax deadline is quickly approaching and I have been filing away my 2010 receipts and double-checking all of my “legal” tax deductions in anticipation of visiting my accountant. A strange thought just came into my mind:

“What if I lied to the IRS the way that CARB and their paid-for “scientists” have lied to all of us about the dangers of PM2.5?”

So 2012 is here, and I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and safe New Year. I am optimistic that as the year progresses, it will be a more profitable one than 2011 was for everyone.
Unfortunately, even though the weather has been beautiful here in the south, work has been spotty at best. It’s kind of funny how there is all this talk of deadly polluted air from the media, CARB and EPA, and yet this time of year we (and many around the world) can’t seem to get enough of our weather and our so-called dirty air. You almost have to be a moron to believe any of this propaganda coming from EPA and CARB today about particulate matter (PM) and extreme weather events. The only extreme I have seen is extremely nice weather and clean air!

Speaking of CARB, at last they finalized their regulations, and their reporting site is up and running. Everyone should report their power units to CARB by March 30, 2012. I actually have reported and was able to enter my information and download my verification sheet with no problems. Here is the website for reporting: www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/onrdiesel/reportinginfo.htm. Remember if the site has any problems, report them to CARB and then blog about them on our website. If you feel uncomfortable going on the CARB website, you can still call Sean Edgar at CleanFleets and, for a fee, they will report for you. They will also explain all your compliance options and things like engine control label conformance. It’s worth the investment if you feel a little overwhelmed. Sean’s office number is 916-718-7050.

Well, we have a new year and, to no one’s surprise, we need to monitor the developments (and numerous lawsuits) associated with CARB, EPA, AB32, and cap and trade to see what all these wonderful environmentalists’ social engineering plans will do to us next.