Page 245 - Peterson 85 Years and Going Strong

According to Galindo, there are really two options for truck customers today: install a DPF or buy a brand-new truck. “Repowering a truck is a totally different animal from the off-road market. It in- volves a lot more than just the engine. These new engines are physically larger, so the radiators are larger because they need more cooling capacity; they need air-to-air chargers and diesel particulate filters.Today’s trucks are very wide in the front be- cause there’s a lot more in there than just the ra- diator. There’s also air piping and larger fan drives. So our general recommendation is to just buy new. And with Carl Moyer funding, you can get up to $50,000 to help.”
Today’s trucks have wider grills to accommodate larger radiators and more complicated engines.
There is, however, a third option. Leasing has been popular for the past fifteen to twenty years in the San Francisco Bay Area, but the emissions issue has turned up the volume even more. “All of a sudden, leasing doesn’t seem like such a bad idea to people who would have never leased trucks before,” says Galindo. “Since the new trucks have a lot more bells and whistles, a lot more can go wrong. So some people choose to lease instead because they don’t want all the hassles that the new engines can have. It becomes somebody else’s problem. If the check engine light comes on, they can just bring it back to Idealease, for example, and get a different truck and keep on driving.”1
1 See the full story on pg 160, Idealease: Another Choice.
Bill Bryan/fleet manager of PJ’S Rebar
PJ’S REBAR ADAPTS TO CARB MANDATES
PJ’s Rebar, Inc. is a specialty rebar manufacturer based in Fremont, California, geared toward new construction and the earthquake-retrofit market. The 35-year-old company grew out of a need for earthquake-resistant substructure support for bridges, sports stadiums, parking complexes, high rises, electric towers, windmills, and anything that requires the heavy reinforcement of 2.25-inch steel rebar. PJ’s delivers one million pounds of steel rebar every day to customers in California and the other eleven western states. The trucking portion of their business is huge—both as a delivery system and an expense, given CARB’s emissions-control mandates. Their fleet consists of fifteen trucks and fifty-five trailers, including eight 80-foot stretch trailers and a number of bobtails.
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