Will EPA/NHTSA Rules Exacerbate Service Issues?

You've got less than 2 weeks to submit comments to our government on their proposed Phase 2 GHG rules for 2018 to 2027. I'm at the battery and electric vehicle conference today and preparing for the TMC Future Truck meeting on Sunday. The fall meeting is focused on service and includes the finals for the technician contest. Common problems in our industry include shortage of technicians, knowledge levels and access to information. I just listened to what is happening regarding 12- and 48-volt systems in passenger cars in the next two years. Each OEM is making its own decisions on what approaches to use. The result I see is going to be more variation that is going to be difficult to maintain.

As I think about the approach with Phase 2 for us in commercial vehicles, I see a similar problem. EPA/NHTSA is not driving a particular technology, but leaving it up to each OEM to select from a basket of technologies to achieve the end result. That's great for competition among the OEMs and meets the government need for performance-based standards, but it is going to create huge challenges for fleets to maintain trucks with so many variations. Get your comments in to the government, and let's discuss how we can use TMC to create some standardization we can deal with in service over the next two decades or more.