The California agency, CARB, also known as the California Air Resources Board, has delayed the start of their enforcement process for registration requirements that were previously set to go into effect on the first of the year. The registration requirements come from the Advanced Clean Fleets rule.

CARB sent out a letter to the California Trucking Association explaining that they will not begin their enforcement until the United States Environmental Protection Agency does one of two things. The two things that would kickstart the enforcement are the EPA granting a preemption waiver that applies to regulatory provisions or the EPA determining that a waiver is not needed. If the EPA does either of these two things, then CARB will begin its enforcement of the Advanced Clean Fleets rule regarding “high-priority or drayage fleets” reporting requirements.

The California Trucking Association will be happy to hear about this delay, as they filed a federal lawsuit in hopes of blocking the rule.

The rule requirement of the ACF is one that applies to any trucks that perform drayage operations at seaports and/or rail yards. It also applies to any government agency owned fleets on either the local, state, or federal level. The final group affected by the law are “high-priority” fleets, which are fleets that are owned, operated, or direct at least one vehicle within California. These fleets have to be ones which have either $50 million or more in gross annual revenue or are ones that own, operate, or have common ownership/control of at least 50 vehicles.

Furthermore, the rule applies specifically to medium and heavy-duty on-road vehicles that have a gross vehicle weight that is higher than 8,500 pounds, off-road yard tractors, and light-duty mail and package delivery vehicles. The letter issued to drivers in the CTA included a disclaimer stating the agency will not have the power to stop fleets from adding more vehicles that are powered by combustion engines that run internally while they are waiting for the EPA to issue a decision on the waiver.

Vehicles that are ruled as exceeding their “useful life periods” will not be affected by the ACF rule either way.

CARB defined a vehicle’s “useful life period” as a truck that is 13 years old or more, with the first model year in which the engine was already certified by CARB or the EPA. The 13 year age can also be counted starting with the date in which the vehicle exceeded 800,000 miles traveled. The final definition of “useful life period” is one in which a truck is 18 years removed from the year in which the EPA or CARB first certified the engine.