Call it a costly nuisance or a valuable way to rid the roads of trucks that foul the air, the fact is that emissions testing for heavy-duty trucks in Canada has moved out of the hazy concept stage and into the harsh light of reality. British Columbia, through its AirCare On-Road program, has been patrolling the Lower Mainland for the past three years, issuing warnings to owners of trucks that emit unacceptable levels of pollution. Since May 1, the warnings have been replaced by tickets requiring operators to fix the problem within 30 days or be denied renewal of their vehicle licence. In Ontario, the province’s Drive Clean mandatory smoke-testing effort will be extended to include heavy-duty trucks and buses across the province starting this September. Heavy vehicles will also be subject to random roadside checks as a way to snare trucks based outside of Ontario.

In both provinces, there will be pressure on truckers to clean up their act. Trucks pollute: during the 36-month ACOR pilot, 17% of more than 4000 trucks and buses failed the test. Sporadic roadside enforcement in Ontario during the past year produced a similar failure rate. If your rig is poorly maintained, watch out.

Both provinces test emissions of diesel-powered equipment using the SAE J-1667 “snap-acceleration opacity test,” while non-diesel commercial vehicles will undergo a “two-speed idle test,” measuring emissions at two pre-determined RPM settings. The permissible opacity limits for diesels are 55% for model-year 1990 and older vehicles, and 40% for 1991-model and newer equipment.

But beyond the testing itself, the philosophies behind the two programs are very different. B.C. takes a targeted approach to enforcement, with roving “smog police” on the lookout for suspect polluters and testing them on the spot. Ontario also will conduct roadside tests, but the backbone of Drive Clean is mandatory annual emissions testing as a prerequisite to vehicle registration.

If truckers must face emissions tests, B.C.’s approach seems more palatable and fair. Two mobile testing vans patrol the southern Fraser Valley and Lower Mainland, where 70% of the province’s truck and bus traffic is found and concerns about pollution are most acute. The surveillance vans typically position themselves near high-traffic intersections so enforcement officers can observe exhaust-smoke conditions as vehicles start out from a full stop, but they also periodically patrol streets and highways to observe underway trucks and buses.

Each van has a two-person crew consisting of a commercial vehicle inspector and a technician. The technician runs the emissions test, while the inspector can also check out the vehicle for any other mechanical-fitness or safety-related deficiencies that might turn up. (His function is not to undertake a full CVSA roadside check, however.) With opacity tests, the lower the result number the better.

If the vehicle fails, the vehicle has to be fixed and pass a follow-up opacity test at one of the Qualified Inspection Facility stations that handle the basic AirCare inspections for automobiles and non-diesel commercial vehicles.

“There are no current plans to increase the number of inspection vans,” says David Kosub, a spokesman for the B.C. Ministry of Environment. “The Ministry realizes that the vast majority of truckers here are operating properly. Nevertheless, the government is evaluating instituting further penalties for the bad apples, specifically a system of fines. We already see the threat of refusal to issue a licence as a pretty big hammer, but there might be a need for something further in some cases. Any move to institute fines would require legislative action, though.”

Ontario casts a wider net. Within one year of the Sept. 30 start date, every one of the approximately 200,000 heavy-duty commercial vehicles registered in Ontario that are more than three years old will have been tested. Without a successful test result, their annual registrations will not be renewed.

Testing in Ontario will be through approved service facilities, and the province is hoping enough existing garages and service centres send in “expressions of interest” (fee for successful applicants: $1000, of which a refundable $200 initial deposit must accompany the application form) that an ultimate network of hundreds of such inspection and repair locations can be created. The first heavy-duty “Drive Clean Facility” is planned to be certified and in operation before the end of June. Commercial fleets are allowed to set up their own in-house Drive Clean inspection and repair facility, as long as they are properly registered and meet all the necessary criteria (see sidebar).

Ontario launched its Drive Clean program for “light-duty” vehicles (GVWs of 4500 kg or less-cars, vans, SUVs, and the like) this spring, requiring an emissions test every-other year for vehicles more than three years old, and initially only applying to vehicles registered in the Greater Toronto Area and Hamilton-Wentworth Region. By comparison, the program for heavy commercial vehicles requires annual inspections once the vehicle is more than three model-years old, and it covers the whole province. ProtectAir, the Unionville, Ont.-based firm the province contracted to oversee training, certification, and facility audits for the light-duty program is expected to be retained to administer the heavy-duty function.

(Non-diesel-powered heavy-duty vehicles-gasoline, propane, natural gas equipment-must also be tested, but initially only in the GTA and Hamilton-Wentworth; in 2001, the obligation will extend to 13 other Ontario urban centres, as will the light-duty program.)

When in full force, Drive Clean is expected to cut smog-producing pollutants from cars and trucks by about 22%.

But when it comes to revenue projections for Drive Clean, the sky’s the limit. While the testing fee for cars and light trucks is capped at $30, there is no limit on what can be charged for a heavy-vehicle Drive Clean test.

Test and repair facilities can set their own prices, presumably reflecting what the market will bear-tempered by how nearby a competing facility might be.

Ten dollars of the $30 light-duty fee and $15 of the variable heavy-duty fee goes back to the Ontario government, which says it will be 10 years before the province breaks even on Drive Clean.

Fines for non-compliance may help speed Ontario’s return on investment. In limited use over the past year, Ontario’s roadside testing program inspected 700 vehicles, ticketed 130, and collected $26,000 in fines. A beefed-up Smog Patrol ticketed 97 trucks between April 1 and May 7. Fines are $425, plus court costs.

However, Ontario’s plan doesn’t go far enough to catch the polluting vehicles based based outside the province, according to the Ontario Trucking Association.

While it supports roadside testing, the OTA has “enormous concerns over annual testing from a cost-effectiveness and competitiveness point of view,” according to association president David Bradley. An alternative program that would have retained annual testing for older, mechanical engines, but would have given a break to the new, electronic engines fell on deaf ears. “It wouldn’t have given us the level playing field we need to compete with carriers from elsewhere, but at least it would have reduced our costs somewhat,” Bradley explains.

After all, trucks from outside the province-which on any given day can account for 30% of the vehicles on Ontario’s roads-aren’t required to undergo the costly annual emissions testing requirements. Nor is there any way to ensure that out-of-province trucks make the necessary repairs if they’re caught at the roadside.

Truckers want clean air. And if testing is required, at least those in Ontario would rather see a more even-handed approach-and look to B.C. with envy.