Baltimore dealer wants all to know new trucks are clean and green

Daily Record, The (Baltimore), Jul 7, 2008 by Liz Farmer

There's something odd about the commercial trucks at Beltway International LLC. Peering into their exhaust pipes, you find none of the crusty black soot you'd expect from your typical veteran of the highways.

"You're never going to see black smoke belching out of this because the air coming out is cleaner than the stuff going in," said owner Jack Saum Sr. at the company's Baltimore dealership near Halethorpe.

But while the emissions technology has changed, the perception of trucks as polluters has not, said Saum, which is why his company has launched an ad campaign to change that.

Featuring a background of leafy trees in sunlight, the words "A New Truck is a 'Green' Truck," can be found emblazoned on the most visible part of the company -- its truck trailers. The ads are on a number of trailers already, with more to come.

"I think we've probably all seen a truck belching black smoke, so it's an easy target [to blame for pollution]," Saum said. "But the trucks we're building today are much cleaner. I think as an industry we don't tell that story very well."

Saum's new trucks at Beltway's six Maryland locations west of the Chesapeake Bay have engines equipped with technology that burns the soot and carbon in the air before emitting the exhaust. Other trucks have been retrofitted to meet newly implemented U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards, and a couple of hybrid trucks round out Beltway's approximately 800-truck rental, leasing and for-sale fleet.

In the last several years, the commercial trucking industry has gone through some major changes due to EPA standards mandated in the 1990s that are now taking effect. As a result, truck engines built today eliminate more than 90 percent of particulate and hydrocarbon emissions, leaving the exhaust smokeless, odorless and much cleaner. But Saum and others say the general public still remains largely in the dark about these environmentally friendly developments.

"I would say there are misconceptions," said Anne S. Ferro president and chief executive officer of the Maryland Motor Truck Association. "Are you seeing that smoke coming out of trucks when you go past them on the highway? Certainly there are some exceptions with the older vehicles, but it's very rare now."

The most recent changes in the engine burning process took effect last year and upped the cost of the new vehicles by 5 to 10 percent for a truck that would have cost $100,000, Ferro said. In 2010 and 2012, tighter emissions standards will increase the cost by another 5 to 10 percent.

Combined with the higher cost of diesel fuel due to the new ultra- low sulfur refining method, commercial trucking companies today are feeling the squeeze more than ever.

"It's terribly expensive," said Ferro, who noted that the increased cost of diesel combined with the decline in demand for trucks has resulted in fuel costs for companies jumping from 25 percent to about 50 percent of their operating budgets.

"The trucking industry is also highly competitive," Ferro went on. "There's 600,000 trucking companies in the U.S., but 90 percent are 10 trucks or fewer. Consequently they get very small margins. ... Those guys don't really have the out-of-pocket money to invest in newer equipment."

Donald Broughton, who follows the trucking industry for Avondale Partners LLC in Nashville, also pointed out that the new emissions standards, while better for the environment, do not increase fuel efficiency. He said this puts even more pressure on the smaller companies.

"The great irony here is that while it is tragic that these companies go out of business, it's bad for them but it's good for the remaining players," Broughton said, adding that most of the survivors will be the larger fleets.

Some dealers like Saum are investing in technology that exceeds the EPA requirements -- such as hybrid trucks -- to help save on future costs. Beltway also broke ground last month on a green dealership in Frederick that Saum said he expects will save him money once it opens next year.

Trucking associations are also working with the EPA to get incentives and loan programs for the smaller trucking company owners, whose trucks make up about half the ones on the road today, according to Ferro.

As far as Beltway's ad campaign goes, Saum said he's been getting positive reactions from returning and new customers and hopes to do what he can to educate the public. Ferro said the advertisements were a great first step.

"Why not?" she said. "We're traveling billboards if you look. Most of us see a truck and we see something big and scary on the highway next to us. We forget that they've got our bread for dinner, our meat for our weekend barbeques. ... The more we can get good images on those truck trailers, the better it is for us."