Labbe Urges Fleets to Pre-Buy for '07

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ORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The nation’s trucking fleets should consider “pre-buying” vehicles with current-model engines over the next few years to avoid high costs associated with the next generation of lower-emission products that will hit showroom floors in 2007, according to industry economist Martin Labbe.

Labbe told the Diesel Engine Emissions Summit II audience here March 16 that the trucking industry had focused so much on the effects that tougher emission rules would have on equipment that it had neglected to calculate indirect costs they will face in operating the engines.

The consultant, whose Florida-based Martin Labbe and Associates specializes in trucking industry issues, said one of those economic effects was a likelihood that many smaller fleets could be driven out of business.

“There has been a gross mis-estimate of the impact that is going to occur” in 2007 and beyond, Labbe told about 1,100 industry officials at the summit.

For the full story, see the March 22 edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.

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