Off-Road and Diesel Portable Engine Regulations

Find out what the California Air Resource Board's state emission standard successes and challenges mean for your equipment and region.

By Dr. Homaira Akbari

We've all seen them. They dot the landscape as we drive down the highways and bi-ways of our nation's roads, modern machinery that makes our country move forward. They are the tools of progress: generators, compressors, concrete pumps, wood chippers, water pumps, drill rigs, pile drivers, rock drills, abrasive blasters, concrete mixers / batchers and welding machines. In industry speak, we call them "off-road" vehicles and "portable-engine" equipment. But they have a dirty little secret - they pollute. And California has taken dead aim to regulate this pollution.

The California Air Resource Board (CARB) sets the state's emission standards, with the potential to wield great power. It can impact federal laws, other state regulations and the commercial companies that build all of this equipment.

You may personally agree or disagree with CARB's intentions to regulate off-road vehicle and portable-engine equipment, but that's beside the point. More stringent regulation of this equipment will emerge as reality throughout the country, just as it will for automobiles and factories with respect to their impact on greenhouse gas emissions. The real question is: What does this means to you and your company - which may own and operate tens, hundreds or even thousands of pieces of this equipment? How will you effectively track, manage and report emissions activity on your equipment efficiently and cost-effectively while still remaining compliant?

CARB's intentions are far-reaching. Every portable engine with a rating of 50-brake horsepower or greater must have a permit or registration. Run-time hours must be reported either to each of the 35 local air districts, in which the engine was operated, or through the statewide Portable Equipment Registration Program (PERP), which offers an alternative to individual permits. Logs must be kept on a daily basis with a report required once a year in March. So what does this mean?

You can expect to be required to provide proof that your engine was running in a specific location. The CARB, and other regulators who follow suit, will most likely demand a standardized reporting function that provides the coordinates of that equipment at all times, from tracking technology based on satellite communication systems to ensure no breaks in coverage.

Your equipment must have the ability to produce an automated report that its engine was on or off, as well as when it was or was not over the 50-rating brake horsepower threshold. These reports will be much like drivers log requirements for the transportation industry. A company will need to be able to provide them upon request from the authorities, as well as for annual audits. And, as with the Department of Transportation, there will be fines.

Your reporting device must be able to last for long periods of time in terms of ruggedness and battery power, and it must be low-cost. Financially, it doesn't make sense to replace devices regularly due to breakage or battery recharging. Nor does it make sense to have a $2,000 device on a $4,000 piece of equipment, does it?

Who will this impact? The list is long. It includes manufacturing firms, such as Caterpillar; large equipment operators, like Halliburton; local equipment rental companies; and the construction company that builds your new home or road.

There are tens of thousands of companies in California alone that will be impacted, and possibly hundreds of thousands across the U.S. if regulations such as this are put into place on a national scale. Business and technology leaders must combine their efforts now to ensure that we have a realistic solution before these regulations come to pass.

Dr. Homaira Akbari is the president and chief executive officer of SkyBitz Inc., a leading remote asset tracking and information management service provider located just outside Washintgon, D.C. She may be contacted at hakbari@skybitz.com.