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There are those of us in the transportation industry who would like
to envision a future in which our children could continue to make
this business a viable career option. To that end we have worked
diligently to adhere to the CARB’s regulations and those laws that
govern us.

Compliance required us to change some of our established practices
at the expense of hard earned equity in our businesses. These loses
came in the form of replacing perfectly good ’06 and prior
equipment, in favor of ’07 trucks that are not nearly as practical
for the work we do, but are compliant. 

Now, after those of us who went to great financial pains to meet
your requirements, you desire to entertain the idea of
significantly loosening those regulations? For the few that made a
business decision to defy compliance at the risk of suffering the
agreed consequence, we are now discussing waiving any consequence?
These scofflaws commonly have no maintenance or safety departments
to speak of, and commonly run the dirtiest engines and boast the
worst safety records. But these are the ones we are now considering
for relief?

In an incredibly competitive industry making proposed changes that
relieves or forgives anyone would be unfair, and take an already
uneven playing field, and simply make it more so! We do not ask for
preferential treatment at this late stage, but perhaps allowing
those professing ignorance of the industry’s laws and regulations
should be sufficient evidence to warrant that they should not be in
the industry in the first place!