California Construction Trucking Association (CCTA)

CTA and the enviros team-up to make CARB regulations even worse – if that's possible

It's June, are you working yet? The jobs started looking a little better last month but the rain has been persistent here in northern California and so jobs are still being delayed.

We have the Board meeting in Oakland this month and CDTOA/AADT has a double-booth in Las Vegas for the Great Western Truck Show. Hope to see some of you there.

CDTOA v. CARB Update

The CDTOA v. CARB lawsuit has been moving forward with the guidance of our legal counsel, Ellison Law Group. Two members – Fred ReCupido and me, affiliate member, Superior Trailers owner, Jay Pocock and Lee, have submitted declarations for our suit against CARB. Brooks' office will be filing a motion for summary judgment along with our declarations around the end of this month. Then CARB will have 30 or more days to decide if they need any additional discovery associated with our declarations which explain how the CARB regulations have affected the price, routes and services of our businesses and industry. If you go to our website you can get the latest updates and court filings associated with our lawsuit.

Final CARB Rule Released in May

Around the middle of last month, CARB finally released their last revisions to the on-road truck and bus rule. And we now have a low mileage exception for construction vehicles. Thanks to CDTOA and others efforts we have a new and improved exemption for low mileage construction trucks. Dump trucks were given a 20,000 or less mile exception and all other construction related trucks including lowboys were given a 15,000 miles or less exception. I know that this will probably not help those with transfers, supers and belly dumps but the 10-wheeler and end dump members may qualify for the 2 year extension. Clearly our messaging about the unreasonableness of all these regulations has not gone unnoticed. Surely this was a carrot, but in this economy it's almost worthless to most of us.

Regardless of some of these compromises by CARB, we still need to have CARB and EPA shut down if we ever want "maker" jobs in this state and country. In my opinion, Mary Nichols and her band of job-killing zealots have done enough damage to California and that mentality is now predominate within the current federal administration.

I was in and out of Nevada over the last few weeks and paid fifty cents a gallon less for diesel than in Sacramento. Even the highways were noticeably better maintained than ours – how can that be – oil is pumped and refined here and yet we have the highest gas and diesel taxes in the U.S.? I venture a guess that Nevada is not burdened by ridiculous regulations like CARB's special fuel formulations and the layers of government and public entitlements here. The high cost of being a Californian has led many to leave the state and enslaved the rest of us. The high price of fuel is causing inflation yet truck rates seen to be deflationary – there are far too many contradictions here that will all lead to the eventual collapse of our states economy.

If you really want to see the truth about particulate matter or PM pollution in this state, the U.S. and the rest of the world look at the cover of the magazine and the NASA satellite photos. Just look how clean this states' air is. If you really look at the detailed photos, they confirm everything professor Enstrom has been staying about our air and the premature death and other factoids (an invented fact believed to be true because it appears in print) that CARB and the enviro-groups get published everyday.

CTA's Legislation Get's the Enviros all Warm and Fuzzy

I was interviewed recently by KQED public radio (a national public radio/media outlet) reporter Sasha Khokha. She wanted information from our (CDTOA member) perspective as part of a story about how CTA is sponsoring legislation that is also supported by the "Air Nazi's" outside of CARB. We have taken an "opposing" position on AB 1099, unless it is amended to provide an exception for construction trucks. The legislation will not allow a 1996 or older truck to be registered in the state if it has not been continually registered here. If you have a "non-opted" truck next year in your fleet and you forget to pay registration fees you won't be able to reregister it here. A member for example with a 1989 truck who wants to upgrade to a 1995 or 1996 (from Texas, Oklahoma or anywhere else outside of California) and get until 2016 to decide what to do in this horrible economy, wont have that option. We are suing CARB, and opposing this bill is totally consistent with our lawsuit. We already have enough burdensome regulations to eat; to make those regulations even more burdensome is ridiculous. If CTA wanted to do something useful maybe they should sponsor a bill to improve or change the blanket indemnification laws for transportation companies or, minimally, a bill to kill CARB.

The lawsuit against CARB is the line in the sand that we have made, and we will fight against anyone who crosses it. CARB went from promoting the upgrade to newer technology and diesel engines through grants from public funds and has moved to the wholesale taking of our businesses (trucks) without fair compensation. Never forget that most of us built our businesses up from one truck, probably a used truck. In all actually, we have offset the carbon footprint of those line haul users by continuing to use those trucks in a low mileage industry application. The truth is we are the ultimate recyclers of used trucks, and therefore, I believe that the amendment we are asking for to CTA's bill is warranted.

The story on AB 1099 (Lowenthal) and CTA's bill that bans pre-1997 out-of-state trucks was featured on NPR on June 8. They only used a minute of my comments from the 20 minute phone interview. See link here to watch it: (http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201106070850/b).

State Officer Election 2012-13

With elections for state officers for the next 2-year term coming up shortly, I would hope members of our association will step up and give back to it and the industry by running for these positions. We need new faces, fresh ideas and your commitment to the dump truck industry. Call me; I am looking for a list of committed nominees. I have been in this association for many years, like most of you and can honestly say that I have learned many things in the numerous positions I have volunteered for. I have become more knowledgeable about our industry and my own business and it has helped me understand things such as, regulations and the need for business skills – all of this has helped me to be more successful in my own business. Working on the Executive Board has been fulfilling and rewarding to me personally, I have networked with many in our industry, and have enjoyed all. So come join us and find out for yourselves! Give back to the industry and others by representing CDTOA.

In Response to Last Month's Reality Check

After last month's article, I received a few calls commenting that maybe I was too harsh in my outlook on the members. I sincerely apologize if some took this as a direct insult, but something is wrong when we loose sight of personal responsibility and expect others to fight our battles for us.

Supporting CDTOA and its charter to educate members and lobby for a better business regulation does not diminish the fact that we do need higher rates for our work. We all need to demand fair compensation for our work and the truckers themselves need to know their costs and not work for contractors or brokers that do not pay or do not pay fairly! We all need more money and with the impending increases in our operating costs (CARB, fuel, tires, even health care) we all are working for less than what we need to make a living. So, I suggest that you get together with your fellow truckers and demand more money and stop working cheap. You should be able to work out the rates you need for the work in your area, but CDTOA cannot by law set rates for your work.

"Strength in Numbers" can work for you. Just get together demand to be paid fairly and on time and don't be afraid to use the laws and resources available to collect your billings. Incidentally, payment laws or statutes all passed by CDTOA.

Finally, I would remind all those interested in applying for CDTOA scholarships that the deadlines are near, so get those applications in ASAP! Check out the CDTOA website for more information and look for us on Facebook. Please feel free to post some pictures of your chapter meetings or even work pictures.

Lastly, I would like to welcome Glenn Neal, the acting Executive Director of the California Tow Truck Association (CTTA) who also owns a tow business in Vacaville, California, to our AADT Board. Glenn has accepted the position and we hope to appoint him officially to the Board at the Friday Meeting on June 17. The AADT Board had directed Brooks and Lee about three years ago to select a solid representative of the tow industry to serve as an outside AADT board member and Glenn we believe, is the right person at the right time for us. This partnership with CTTA has been long in coming but is sure to be a great partnership that will benefits to both our organizations.

Strength in Numbers - Robert McClernon