California Trailer Skirt Laws

Use a 48' reefer and you can run legal, plus they are better to pull.

 

Im just saying its EASIER to get a passing sticker for having late model equipment,I have nothing against folks with new trucks..Actually some of them are lookin pretty Spiffy!

Its the guys with older equipment that pay the price because DOT enforcement THINKS they know what they are looking for.

Im gonna tell you folks somethin right now...............These trained DOT officers dont know much about trucks...Ive had to 'explain' to them that a particular feature on my truck was ok, When they thought it was Out of service Criteria.........

Ive Schooled many officers that dont understand basic fundamentals.on equipment, especially older stuff........

 

Just mall cops with jumpsuits and perfect world codebook

 

I'm based in California and for years in most truck stops across the states all I ever hear is how stupid and messed up with all kinds of ridiculous laws CA is, how apparently everybody hates the thoughts of going there cause it turns their stomach! Yet they take every available load / opportunity to CA that comes up!
Heres what I have to say to you, stay the hell out of CA, stop hauling loads for $1 PM or less into and out of this state while at the same time crying that you have no money to replace or update your truck and even if you did you don't want to because this is how you did things back in 1974 so this is how you want to do things 2014.
Stay in the states that you are comfortable with the rules and regs.
Then you won't have to be bitter about trucking in CA and small guys like me who are based here might actually have a chance of making a few bucks.

Rant over

 

Sooooo.....Evidently, You now have a ARB compliant truck? Did I say that right? ARB..Or is it CARB?

Oh well, They say the key to success is being debt free......

its 2014...So My guess is that you Californicationers are going to be getting Awesome rates now right?

Just Curious Foxcover......With the PURCHASE of that compliant truck you have or DPF upgrade, Will the rates reflect the investment quickly?


Hmm............Old-Timer once told me back in the Late 1970's....(Think around 79') .... Pay for everything in CASH! You'll live better. I Listened....he was right

 

Happy New Year Mickey,

You bring up a very valid question on rates and a good point on the cash / no payments deal.

Firstly CARB compliance and rates:
We have been CARB compliant since 2012 even though we are a small company, 98% of our work is local construction based which is either City, State or Federally funded as the private sector has been dead for years.
On quite a few projects since 2010 there was legislation within the contracts bidding requirements that lower emmissions equipment and trucks be used when possible in some areas. This transcended in 2011 to some upcoming projects having at minimum 2004 emmissions standards and so on.
Some / most PG&E projects required 2007 emmissions standards and some even 2010.

This spurred our hasty move for newer trucks long before the drayage or freight rules kicked in.
We used to charge about $90 to $95 ph for end dumps or flatbeds up to this and on jobs without these requirements but were able to charge between $110 to $130 ph on jobs with these requirements.
So to answer the question yes, CARB compliance was reflected quite well in the Construction rates.

However for freight:
The only change we saw in freight was loads that needed to go into ports in California, especially Oakland which I maintain is the worst port in the country to haul into or out of, not due to CARB but to the lack of ability to efficiently get trucks in and out.
This was'nt and still isn't for the majority of freight passing through but for spot freight.
Freight is in my opinion at an all time low in California with this winter being the worst in the last four years.

If I were to rely on general freight to feed my family we would starve, let alone buy new trucks!
This is not due to CARB, it is due to the endless supply of idiots who line up in droves to haul freight in and out of the state so cheaply and every day one goes broke two more take their place all while complaining about the CA issues.
I too don't like some of the rules and regs CA has put in place but my way of dealing with that is charge better rates to compensate! Not work cheap and complain about it. Hence my rant before.
If we were not a construction based company and relied on general freight to make a living we would not be able to live or base our company in California.
We would base in some other state where the cost of owning and running a company would be 1/5th what it is in the Bay Area. Maybe this is why CARB took the route they did vs letting the life of trucks take their natural course, (being replaced when wore out). It may level the playing field a little bit for the CA based companies but I haven't seen the benefit yet so far.

Pay in cash:

I have been a strong believer in purchasing our equipment this way till our company annual revenue went over $1m.
Tax write offs became a very important survival and growing tool.
We have very few vehicles with payments but any vehicles that do are higher purchase.
If we leased instead I would have more $$$ in my pocket for the last few years.
This is in line with my statement about doing things the same way for decades.
Although my own set ways about buying equipment outright / cash or at least paying it off to own it was somewhat a secure feeling?
I must always find the ability to adapt as business and market needs change.

Just because you may have the ability to outright buy a new truck doesn't make it practical to do so.

Heres to 2014 being a healthy and prosperous year for you Mickey.

 

Great explanation......

What are OUTSIDE carriers doing that are not CARB compliant? Whats this 500 mile exemption annually?

are these carriers (Whether it be For Hire or not) still going to continue...Or is CARB FIRM on the Jan 1st enforcement?

 

Thanks Mickey,

There has been a lot of confusion here with the CARB regs and who and when such rules apply.
Some rules have been relaxed a little by CARB last month.
The small guys like us and owner operators have a lot more lea way than most realize.
Depending on engine year, engine family and so on there are extensions and exemptions that almost all small owner operators can avail of without having to add a PDF etc.
From what I can remember if you owned one truck and registered with CARB before 12/31/2012 you could get an exemption till 2016. I believe this was one rule they relaxed last month and reopened registration for owner ops.
This means that nothing needs to change for owner operators once registered but large companies will still be regulated at the stricter level.

I'm hoping for rates to reflect this and am hopeful it will help us smaller guys out.
It isn't the owner operator that owns and operates his or her truck with their own authority that killed the CA rates but the big carriers that have thousands of trucks with lease owner operators.
These poor guys are the ones I really feel sorry for as this is where our rate problem resonates from.

If I don't like the price a customer or load a broker posted on a loadboard I can counteroffer and I either get my price or move on. I can do this because I have my own authority and can work for anyone, anywhere any time I want. That's fair open market!

The poor lease owner operator must take what their given, (no forced dispatch) is an illusion that most lease ops get conned with. If they don't take it the company may sit them till they are desperate to take anything that gets their wheelers turning and will gladly run day and night just to try get out of that financial hole and uncertainty they face every day, or they face going belly up and giving back the truck they worked so hard to pay for up to that point. All the while the big carrier they are leased to laughs all the way to the bank! It is a picture that is painted many different ways but the same paint is always used.

I had a very interesting conversation with QC lately about CA work that really pointed out this flawed business plan.

 

I thought a trailer skirt was a cross dresser who hung out behind the trucks in the back row.

 

Frieghtliner has a video on the Evolution on YouTube (Fuel Mileage Test | Cascadia Evolution Enhanced) where they did road a test and got over 10 MPG with trailer skirts and wheel covers. Sure, the conditions were ideal, but still impressive. Could make for some sweet fuel bonuses. For those who care, they also claimed to be the only manufacturer with their own wind tunnel in another evolution YT video (Freightliner Cascadia Evolution Aerodynamics Development). Sorry don't know how (or know if I am able to) post links to YT video, or I would. I myself am interested in anything that gives a good return on investment in fuel savings, so I can maximize my earnings when I go L/O or O/O.