Truck and Bus Regulation

On-Road Heavy-Duty Diesel Vehicles (In-Use) Regulation

Background
On December 12, 2008, the California Air Resources Board (ARB) approved a new regulation to significantly reduce emissions from existing on-road diesel vehicles operating in California. The regulation requires affected diesel trucks and buses to meet performance requirements between 2011 and 2023. By January 1, 2023 all vehicles must have a 2010 model year engine or equivalent.

Affected vehicles include on-road heavy-duty diesel fueled vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) greater than 14,000 pounds, yard trucks with off-road certified engines, and certain diesel fueled shuttle vehicles of any GVWR. Out-of-state trucks and buses that operate in California are also subject to the regulation. Diesel pickups with a GVWR of 19,500 pounds or less with the originally equipped pick-up beds used exclusively for personal use, non-commercial, non-governmental use are exempt. Diesel pickups over 14,000 GVWR with utility or flat beds are included in the rule. For further information, please call 866-6DIESEL (866-634-3735) or e-mail 8666diesel@arb.ca.gov. A two page summary of the agricultural provisions of the bill can be downloaded and printed (PDF, 30 KB).

Agricultural Vehicle reporting forms available - Due March 31, 2010
By March 31, 2010, fleets utilizing the agricultural vehicles provision must report information on the fleet as it existed on January 1, 2009, and report by January 31 each year thereafter. This includes all low, limited, and specialty vehicles. The 2010 Agricultural Vehicle Reporting Forms are available for downloading. Agricultural fleets reporting on March 31, 2010 should provide the odometer reading of their vehicles as of January 1, 2010. You must indicate on the form which type or mileage threshold fits your needs and stay at or below that mileage threshold until December 31. Specialty agricultural vehicles have no mileage limits but what can be included in this category is very limited.

Labeling Required for Agricultural Vehicles by April 30, 2010
Within 30 days of the March 31, 2010 reporting date, fleet owners must permanently affix or paint an AG identification label on each low-mileage, limited-mileage, and specialty agricultural vehicle in the fleet according to the following specification:

1. The letters AG shall be white block lettering on a black background. Both letters shall be at least three inches high on a five by eight inch background.
2. The label shall be located in clear view on the left and right door of the vehicle and be in clear view at all times.

How does the regulation define an agricultural vehicle?
An agricultural vehicle is one that meets one of the following definitions:

• A vehicle used exclusively to deliver fertilizer or pesticides to a farm. It must display the legally required hazardous material placard and be owned by a business with a pesticide or fertilizer license.
• A vehicle owned by a farming business that is used exclusively in agricultural operations or by a beekeeping business used exclusively to transport its own bees. Examples include farm trucks used to pick up supplies, mend fences, move cattle, and other farming operations, but excludes vehicles that do not directly support farming operations such as personal use vehicles, vehicles rented or leased out, or vehicles used in a transportation business.
• A truck that is designed for in-field operations that is used exclusively in agricultural operations on the farm. Examples include truck configurations designed to spread manure, dispense hay, and dispense freestall bedding, feed mixers, and bale processors. It also includes water trucks and trucks designed or modified to be used exclusively for the dusting, spraying, fertilizing, or seeding of crops
• A truck used exclusively to transport unprocessed agricultural products to the first point of processing. Examples include trucks transporting crops from the farm to a packing shed, cotton to a cotton gin, or logs from the forest to the saw mill. Also included are trucks that are used to harvest crops for silage and trucks that transport unprocessed agricultural materials from forest or farm to a biomass facility.

What is a farming business?
A farming business is a business that operates or manages a farm for profit, either as owner or tenant. A farming business does not include businesses that derive their principal source of income from providing agricultural services such as, landscape services, veterinary, farm labor, or management for a fee or on a contract basis, or are engaged in the business of artificial insemination, raising, and caring for dogs, cats, or other pet animals.

What are agricultural operations?
Agricultural operations include the activity of growing or harvesting crops for the primary purpose of making a profit including horticultural, viticultural, aquacultural, forestry, dairy, livestock, bee, or farm product. It also includes the cutting or removing of timber, solid wood products, and biomass from forestlands for commercial purposes.

What are the provisions that apply to agricultural vehicles?
Limited-Mileage Agricultural Vehicles
Vehicles qualifying as agricultural vehicles must not exceed the annual mileage limits. Starting January 1, 2010, agricultural vehicles that operate below the annual mileage thresholds indicated based on engine model year, may delay the PM filter and replacement requirements until January 1, 2017. By January 1, 2017, these vehicles must comply with the regulation like non agricultural vehicles unless they replace a low-mileage vehicle in the fleet. All qualifying agricultural vehicles must report and be labeled.

25,000 miles/year: 2006 or newer engines
20,000 miles/year: 1996 - 2005 engines
15,000 miles per year: 1995 or older engines

Low-Mileage Agricultural Vehicles
Starting January 1, 2010, agricultural vehicles that drive fewer than 10,000 miles each year may delay the PM filter and replacement requirements until January 1, 2023.

Each year, the number of agricultural vehicles qualifying for the lower mileage exemptions may not increase. However, agricultural vehicles may be replaced if the following conditions are met:

• The replacement vehicle is at least one year newer than the one being replaced,
• The total mileage for the replacement vehicle and the one being replaced continues to meet the mileage limits, and
• The number of vehicles that qualify for the provisions does not increase.

What are the provisions for specialty agricultural vehicles?
Vehicles approved as specialty agricultural vehicles may delay the retrofit and engine replacement requirements until January 1, 2023. These vehicles have no mileage restrictions, but are limited to 1,100 vehicles in the San Joaquin Valley and 2,200 statewide. Once the limits are reached no more vehicles will qualify as specialty agricultural vehicles. These vehicles must be reported and labeled.

Specialty agricultural vehicles are limited to the following body types and uses:

• trucks used to transport cotton modules
• farmer owned water trucks
• feed or mixer trucks used to dispense feed at beef calf and cattle feedlots (not dairies)
• trucks used exclusively to resupply airplanes or helicopters

How are the vehicles in the fleet that do not qualify as agricultural vehicles treated?
Vehicles that do not qualify for the agricultural vehicle provisions must meet the requirements of the regulation like other non-agricultural vehicles. There are three compliance options available and they include the Best Available Control Technology (BACT) compliance schedule, the BACT percentage limits, and the fleet averaging option. ARB has a fleet calculator that assists fleet owners in developing their own compliance programs for the truck and bus regulation. The calculator is an Excel file designed to help fleet owners in determining the yearly compliance and to plan for the coming years utilizing various compliance options available in the regulation.

For More Information
Fact sheets, compliance tools, and regulatory documents are available at www.arb.ca.gov/dieseltruck or by calling the ARB's diesel hotline at (866) 6DIESEL (634-3735).

Truck and Bus Regulation Compliance Options fact sheets are on the ARB Web site at www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/onrdiesel/documents.htm.

Diesel Vehicle Regulation Overview
ARB has developed a new training seminar that provides an overview of several new and existing ARB regulations that apply to diesel vehicle owners, including the Truck and Bus Regulation, the In-Use Off-road Vehicle Regulation, other diesel engine regulations, and funding opportunities. These seminars are available at many locations in California and some viewable on the Internet. To get more information on these seminars please go to the Course 512 schedule and sign-up: www.arb.ca.gov.