Environment Canada commissions report on environmental tampering

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OTTAWA, Ont. — Environment Canada has commissioned a report to determine how truckers are circumventing emissions regulations on newer model year trucks.

The report comes as the Canadian Trucking Alliance calls on government to crack down on shops providing services that disable a truck’s emission systems. CTA chief executive officer David Bradley wrote in his Truck News column last month, that a crackdown is in order to ensure compliance with clean diesel regs.

“By now most people in the trucking industry have at least heard about the repair shops and garages that seem quite happy to dismantle or otherwise tamper with the new trucks’ air quality controls for a fee,” Bradley wrote. “Some of the people involved in this activity are doing so on the quiet, under the noses of the regulators. Others are more brazen and are taking out advertisements or promoting their service on the Web – in plain view of the regulators.”

The announcement of a forthcoming study also coincides with an investigative report conducted by Truck News and Truck West, which appears in the April issues and will run on Trucknews.com next week.

We found a vast, well-connected network of shops willing to perform ‘DPF Delete’ or ‘EGR Delete’ services, effectively removing emissions systems from newer trucks and reprogramming the ECU to improve fuel economy and performance while restoring emissions output to EPA02 levels or worse. Some of these shops claimed to do 20 trucks a day, with weeks-long waiting lists. The services ranged in price, up to more than $6,000.

A lack of enforcement at the federal and provincial levels has allowed an underground industry to flourish at the expense of the environment.

If you have information on emissions system tampering you’d like to share with Environment Canada, you can contact the CTA’s Marco Beghetto at marco.beghetto@cantruck.ca.

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Truck News is Canada's leading trucking newspaper - news and information for trucking companies, owner/operators, truck drivers and logistics professionals working in the Canadian trucking industry.


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  • The reason these are being done is to prevent downtime. My truck was going into the shop once a month for check engine lights and such. Most of the time it’s a 3 to 5 day wait just to get the truck in! I can’t afford that kind of down time being a 1truck owner. Since my delete, the only time I have a check engine light is when I’m low on coolant. This is all a crock of shite

  • I agree with Chris, we’ve experinced way to much down time with EGR/DPF issues, it’s killing us, losing and costing thousands of $$$!
    If this keeps up we’ll be bankrupt! Is the Government going to help us with these issues…NOT…so really I don’t blame the same operator for the delete…it’s the only way he can stay in business!

  • I finally couldn’t take the downtime with my 2010 Western Star and their favored dd15 engine.took a lose to get rid of it.No more times in tow truck. 10 times more than all my other trucks combined.One point a previous person made was true is why burn more fuel to get more trouble with dirty oil and dpf cleanout.All these points need to be considered to fun a profittable business.Thanx for this experience,but i am going to preemmission engines.Staying closer to home,and having a good time.

  • congratulations truck news ! you’ve out done yourselves with these investigative reports of whats going on in the trucking industry, but some things are better left alone , my mother always told me NOBODY LIKES A RAT!!!!!

  • I dont believe the provincial governments will have the resources to take all the trucks that are deleted off the road.the polticans dont what to part with the money they steal from us anyway.what makes me laugh is that truckwest runs articles of driver shortages in canada,just wait and see what happen when ,or if they even try pulling dpf deleted trucks off the road.by the way iam a proud owner of 2010 t800 ken worth that has a full pdi delete and has made my operation profitable here in the real world were the common driver lives,not some phoney editor that dosent no shit from truck west or the government.