California Air Resources Board

Dependable Highway Express, Inc. Settles For $47,600

Dependable Highway Express, Inc. (Dependable), of Los Angeles, California, will pay $47,600 in penalties for violating California Air Resources Board (CARB) air quality regulations.  The $47,600 will go to CARB’s Air Pollution Control Fund, which provides funding for projects and research to improve California's air quality.  This settlement was reached in November 2020.

An investigation conducted by CARB following an inspection event in Boyle Heights, California, an AB 617 community, showed that Dependable failed to meet the applicable smoke testing requirements for 94 heavy-duty diesel vehicles in their fleet.  Dependable also failed to maintain properly affixed Emission Control Labels (ECL) on two of their heavy-duty diesel vehicles.  CARB documented violations as they related to the Periodic Smoke Inspection Program (PSIP) (Cal. Code Regs., tit. 13 § 2190 et seq.) and the ECL requirement (Cal. Code Regs., tit. 13 § 2183).  To settle the case, Dependable agreed to the penalty of $500 per PSIP violation and $300 per ECL violation for a total of $47,600. 

Terms of the settlement include a requirement for Dependable to attend a smoke-test training course, submit PSIP tests for the entire applicable fleet for the calendar years 2020 and 2021, to affix ECL labels on vehicles in violation, and to comply all other CARB regulations going forward.

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