TORONTO, (Mar. 15, 2005) — Trucking is the most environmentally-friendly mode in Canada and don’t you forget it, is essentially the message Canadian Trucking Alliance CEO David Bradley sent the Railway Association of Canada in an op-ed piece published in The Globe and Mail recently.

Bradley — responding to RAC’s Christopher Jones’ own column in the paper arguing that capital cost allowance rates for rail equipment should be accelerated ahead of trucking on environmental grounds — says trucking is the only transport mode whose equipment and fuel usage is regulated in Canada. By law, 2007 model truck engines will virtually eliminate pollutants such as particulate matter and nitrous oxide, he notes.

“(Jones’) premise is based on the assertion that, by allowing the railways to write off their equipment purchases faster than other modes, Canada will be better able to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and meet our Kyoto commitments to improve air quality,” writes Bradley in the paper. ” (Where) railways really need to come clean is on air quality … They’ve persistently opposed the introduction of regulations that would limit their locomotives to less harmful levels of smog-causing emissions. Their new engines may be faster and more efficient, but they emit more of the gunk that adversely affects our air quality.”

If anyone can make an argument for accelerated CCA rates on environmental grounds, says Bradley, surely it is the trucking industry. “Governments should be providing incentives to accelerate the penetration of these new smog-free vehicles into the marketplace,” he wrote.

Even if CCA rates for the rail industry were accelerated relative to trucking, there is little prospect of freight shifting from truck to rail, he says.

“These rates have no impact on the choices made by shippers, but rather on the cost structure of transport providers. Rail is already cheaper. Yet it is losing market share to trucking. The reasons have to do with the quality of service and the ability of trucking to satisfy the 21st-century demands of freight.”