Emissions controls killed my career as an O/O

As the EPA releases yet another round of emissions standards, I’m reminded that these emissions controls killed my career as an owner-operator.

More accurately, the imposition of unreasonable targets set by special interest groups and the politicians getting their spineless pockets lined, killed my career.

I was your ideal owner-operator, but let me go back in time first.

In the fall of 1994, I was wrapping up another season as a custom sprayer and floater driver for Terraflex Ag Services based out of Niverville, Man. Typically, I would drive longhaul or dispatch for the winter. Sitting around for the winter to collect employment insurance was never in my DNA.

That fall my boss came to me with a proposal. He felt I could start up a trucking division to haul our own fertilizer for the winter. Then I would use that power unit to pull my sprayer in the summer, instead of one our normal grain tandems. He wanted to make sure I had a reason to be back in the spring.

It worked well. We parted ways in 1998 when I broke my elbow and couldn’t drive. I’m forever grateful to Allan Kroeker for giving me trust and guidance.

I continued to work my way up until in 2003 I had my own fleet of three trucks doing specialized agricultural and off-road trucking. I was also dealing with ongoing issues from head injuries that impacted my mental health.

A few years later I recognized that due to these issues, I was best as an owner-operator of one truck. I downsized and continued my career as such.

Throughout these years I paid my bills by buying two- or three-year-old trucks from a fleet. I had success getting more mileage out of them and then replacing them.

In 2009, I made the worst decision of my trucking career. I bought a used truck, an ’06 with about 500,000 kms on it. This truck had exhaust gas recirculation but not diesel exhaust fluid (DEF). I listened to the company salespeople insist about how amazing their products were.

The ’06 belched more soot and got worse fuel mileage than the previous versions I owned. I did some aftermarket enhancements because I simply couldn’t afford the cost of the valves and fuel anymore. Before you get your gaskets all blown out, testing proved that my engine ran cleaner.

This truck would’ve bankrupted me if I wasn’t so set on paying my bills. I paid for that truck for years afterwards.

I got into a 2013 truck with the full DEF package and thankfully I could pay bills again. But I dealt with constant sensor and regen issues. The fuel mileage got back to where I was at with my 2000 C-15, so that helped. You read that right. I only got back to my fuel mileage goals that I achieved with my 2000 600-hp C-15.

This is one thing that makes me see red. Trucks in the latter ’90s and early ’00s were achieving decent fuel economy and soot reductions through electronics, lower viscosity oils, aerodynamics, etc., and it was all thrown away for more than a decade.

We have gotten to the point where the DEF systems run decent in the summer, are still a problem in cold weather. Especially when the suppliers turn the pumps off in cold weather so we need to resort to plastic jugs. We ban plastic straws, but not DEF jugs?

In 2016, I’d had enough. I sold my truck and worked with my son for the summer.

I never bought a semi again. I cannot justify the up-front cost and the downtime losses even with warranty.

I care deeply about our environment and mental health issues. This is why I made the statement that I’m an ideal owner-operator. I don’t want to be rolling black coal or leaking oil. I don’t want to use more fuel than I need and my anxieties and tendencies along with my love of spreadsheets have meant that I have tracked fuel economy since I drove my first truck in 1988.

It’s critical for our company owners, associations and local politicians to stand up against the EPA27 ideas. We are burning cleaner than ever. The engines are the most reliable we’ve ever had.

Tell those unelected bureaucrats and special interest groups that if they think they can do better, they should prove it by cleaning up their own act. Those who dump raw sewage into our rivers, derail hazmat trains and fly private jets to environmental summits can join them.

We have a proven track record in trucking and we keep improving on our own. Logic and facts are on our side.