CTA joined government officials, equipment suppliers and environmentalists in Toronto to discuss how upcoming rules governing carbon emissions in the trucking industry should be specifically drafted for Canadian operations.
One of the central issues on the agenda is how the rules could potentially effect truck engine, tractor and trailer performance.
“We support rules that will reduce our carbon footprint but not at the expense of our drivers welfare or the degradation of our equipment’s reliability,” said CTA Senior VP Stephen Laskowski. “CTA wants the regulations to ensure carriers will be able to purchase heavy duty equipment that is tested and proven to operate in a safe, efficient and effective manner in Canadian operating conditions.”
CTA’s VP of Operations Geoffrey Wood walked attendees through the technical aspects of CTA’s SMART approach to the development of future GHG regulation. The core philosophy of this approach includes:
- A comprehensive selection of eligible technology for specific fleet operations that meet their customer needs and provincial regulatory requirements.
- Recognizing the development of unforeseen technologies and the different weight regimes between Canada and the United States.
- A more robust recall system for heavy-duty vehicles associated with GHG qualifying technologies.
- All GHG technologies imported into Canada must be tested for Canadian operating conditions.
“There are multiple regulatory and operating challenges that governments and suppliers need to overcome before equipment gets mandated as part of a GHG compliance rule,” added Wood.
CTA has emphasized the GHG rule can be mutually beneficial to society and industry.
“To achieve that, however, Transport Canada, Environment Canada, suppliers and the provincial governments must work in tandem to ensure Canada develops a rule that makes sense both on paper and in the real world,” says Laskowski.
“In the past, governments created environmental rules that have led to reliability issues for trucking equipment, leaving it to truck drivers and fleet owners to deal with the aftermath without any support. That can’t happen again.”