TORONTO — The Ontario government recently unveiled a new grant program to make trucks greener and the province’s main trucking lobby group acknowledges its significance.

The Ontario Trucking Association says introducing a four-year $15 million grant program designed to assist operators of commercial vehicles in the battle against climate change by investing in fuel saving technologies is “a good first step that is consistent with the industry’s enviroTruck initiative.”

Under the plan, Ontario trucking companies will be able to apply for grants towards the purchase of anti-idling devices such as auxiliary power units (APUs) or in-cab heater technologies and hybrid or alternative energy vehicles.

Companies will be required to collect data on the fuel savings from the green technologies as part of a longer-term effort to reduce GHG emissions.

Applications for the program will be available Nov. 28 and the program is retroactive to August 2007, the launch date of the McGuinty government’s Go Green Action Plan, which includes ambitious targets for greenhouse gas reductions by the freight transportation sector.

OTA has been working with the province for the past year in developing the program.

“While the Green Commercial Vehicle Program is modest in terms of the overall grants available to the industry, it is a good start and something we can build upon,” says David Bradley, OTA president. “While we have yet to see all of the details, we think MTO is taking the right approach.”

OTA estimates the purchase cost of an APU averages from $8,000 to $10,000 per unit. The group notes a previous federal APU rebate program (which ran from August 2003 to March 2006) showed that these sorts of incentive programs can work.

Under that program the federal government invested less than $6 million in APU rebates of up to 20 percent of the purchase price. In return, the industry invested about $30 million, representing the purchase of more than 13,000 auxiliary heating/cooling systems.

OTA continues to pursue other elements of the enviroTruck initiative – weight allowances for wide-base single tires that are equivalent to conventional duals, an accommodation in the dimensional regulations for tractor and trailer aerodynamic enhancements, and longer combination vehicles.

“There is a lot the trucking industry can and is doing to reduce its carbon footprint,” says Bradley. “Our economic goals are more aligned with society’s environmental goals than ever before so we welcome cooperative initiatives with government.”

Once MTO rebate applications are available OTA will be distributing them to its members.