Summit Drawing Top Decision Makers

program billed as the Diesel Engine Emissions Summit is shaping up to be just that — an event drawing top executives of the leading truck and engine makers, oil firms and trucking companies, whose decisions influence the entire industry.

The day-long series of meetings scheduled for June 10 in Phoenix targets looming 2007 and 2010 deadlines for tougher emission rules on heavy-duty trucks. It also looks at the need for manufacturers to settle on technologies they will use at an early enough point that truckers can test them well in advance of the government-mandated deadlines.

Only if that process comes together quickly, industry experts say, can trucking and its suppliers avoid the massive dislocation of 2002, when truckers rushed to buy older-model trucks to avoid the new engines designed to meet last October’s stricter environmental standards.

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