California Construction Trucking Association (CCTA)

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 am confident that my body will be cancer free at this point. At least for now, I am looking forward to getting back to work and regaining some sense of normalcy to my life.

There is no doubt in my mind that our association and staff has done everything it can do to inform our members about CARB’s On-road Truck and Bus rule. I was told by a friend that some non-members are acting like ostriches putting their heads in the sand and spreading a rumor that CARB is going to make an exemption for all mechanical diesel engines. Of course that’s another urban legend.

I sincerely hope that every member has registered their power units with CARB. It is also up to every one of you to investigate what CARB expects to be done to every power unit to make sure you are in compliance with the rule as it is written for the year your motor was built.

There are also many stories flying over the CB about fleets experiencing engine failures in diesel particulate filters (DPF) retrofitted trucks. I hope these failures weren’t related to the filters but that is a definite possibility.
A member recently told me a story about engines with factory installed DPF’s experiencing turbo charger failure due to high temperatures. The latest story was about a 2009 motor equipped truck that had a DPF failure due to excessive diesel fuel being pumped into the DPF, that fire cost the owner over $7,000 in DPF repairs.

The point I am trying to make here is, do your homework before you spend your money. Don’t buy anything with a high failure rate. Educate yourself about the products you intend to purchase. If you do these things, you may save yourself a lot of money and down-time in the future.

Until next month
Fred