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Comment by blunte | Hacker News Reader

What I find surprising is how the majority of semis in Netherlands appear to be very new and presumably in good condition. In Texas, by contrast, few appear to be new and well maintained, while many look quite heavily used. The trailers are even worse.

Considering how expensive those things are, who is affording the new trucks in NL? Is it because they are company owned instead of individual (owner-operator)?

Where do the worn out NL semis go?

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> Where do the worn out NL semis go?

Eastern Europe, if I had to guess. I can't say specifically about semis, but in my home country of Romania I've seen quite a lot of Dutch clunker vans/small trucks roaming the streets (you can tell they're Dutch because they still have some of the original branding decals of the companies that used to own them).

Same with German vehicles. When they fail inspection (usually because of emissions), they are sold to other countries. Central Asia is full of trucks with German lettering. It's always interesting to see.

The US has a similar dynamic:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_inspection_in_the_Unit...

I work for a private ambulance company in the US that shifts ambulances between states based off of emissions requirements. Crews working in California for example will always get the shiny new ambulances, while those in Kentucky get ambos with 200k miles (slight exaggeration) to replace the ones that have been driven into the ground.

If they are just sold on and continue to be used when they fail emissions testing, what is the point of emissions testing at all? The vehicles will just end up in countries that don't care, and emissions will rapidly get worse as they will get minimal maintenance and probably lower quality fuel.

Something similar happens to "recycling" as well, take for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFjsL61qi3g

If there was no emissions testing to begin with, these trucks would be designed to pollute for their entire service life, instead of just the last 20-40% of it.

Also, I don't want pollution in my town. The tradeoff of 'tiny reduction in cost of transportation for way more air pollution' is not worth it for me.

If some other town on the other side of the planet thinks that trade-off is worth it, that's their decision to make. The effect of this kind of pollution, unlike GHG emissions, is largely localized.

Mainly because we are talking about NOx and other Health related emmissions that have local effects not CO2 that have global effects. Yes it sucks about the countries where they end up but it's the responability of the local governments to care what level is acceptable and what not. And often governments have to balance the need to stimulate local economy (by affording to buy cheaper used machines) vs the public health concerns.

It sells new cars, and helps countries look like they care about the environment. The problems get dumped onto other countries.

Perhaps someone can provide a more charitable view, but that's my understanding.

When I was travelling through Ghana I saw tons of cargo vans with Dutch and German decals, advertising plumbers, bakeries, delivery services, etc. It was a bit odd to see them in the middle of West-Africa.

I'm actually kind of curious if anyone ever made a documentary or something about the trip those vans and trucks make, feels like a hidden economy.

You will find that wildly varies in the US too. For example Walmart has very nice trucks. But some random LTL probably has used equipment that is decades old. It comes down to the fact that most of this has a very thin margin. Large private company fleets tend to be newer. Small general delivery tend to be older.

and all of the owner/operators who specifically want pre year 2000 rigs so they don't have to have an ELD.

>Where do the worn out NL semis go?

Eastern Europe. You need to have a Euro 5 or Euro 6 diesel engine to be allowed in many Western European cities as a commercial truck. So old trucks aren't viable.

Some jurisdictions have limits on how old trucks can be, or increased inspection frequency based on the age of the vehicle. Some businesses/terminals have restrictions on the age of equipment too, for instance the port of Vancouver is about to ban trucks older than 10 years. I believe regulations in TX are very lax compared to other parts of the world.

Older trucks dont have the same emissions requirements and are sought after big time in the US.

> In Texas, by contrast, few appear to be new and well maintained, while many look quite heavily used.

That is pretty interesting. A few weeks ago, there was a thread here on HN talking about the Port of Long Beach backlog and a comment mentioning the scarcity of trucks with the clean idle certification.

At about the same time, I took a road trip along the Interstate - Illinois, Indiana, Ohio - and paid attention to the trucks. Somewhere around 90% of them had the "California Clean Idle" sticker on them - and none of them had California plates. Even on trucks with Ontario plates (you see a lot of Canadian trucks in the upper midwest).

My best explanation is that the long-haul routes crisscrossing North America have all the newest, cleanest, most modern vehicles and once they reach a certain age they are sold into the places where they don't drive long distances anymore.

> Where do the worn out NL semis go?

African countries

It depends on the carrier in the US.

Lots of carries take good care of their equipment.

You can also be a carrier and just be one guy and a truck … so there is a lot of variety.

As well as the other responses, it is very common to lease your fleet in Europe, particularly for 3PL's who will lease the fleet over the duration of their contracts.

Most transport is done by 3PL's who will lease the trucks and hire the drivers.

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