Trucking news and briefs for Friday, April 15, 2022:
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado announced April 13 that two diesel shops — Pro Diesel Inc. and Endrizzi Diesel — pleaded guilty to conspiring with a Colorado-based diesel shop to remove or alter the monitoring component of emissions control systems on Class 8 trucks, thereby violating the Clean Air Act.
According to plea agreements, between July 2017 and May 2020, Iowa-based Pro Diesel allegedly paid a Colorado diesel shop identified as “E.D.” more than $76,000 to disable on-board diagnostic systems on 34 Class 8 trucks. Additionally, between January 2017 and December 2020, Missouri-based Endrizzi Diesel allegedly paid E.D. more than $149,000 to disable the diagnostic systems on approximately 60 class 8 trucks.
Both diesel shops pleaded guilty to one count of violating Title 18, United States Code, Section 371, Conspiracy to Defraud the United States.
According to the attorney’s office, through a remote connection, individuals at E.D. would run software to reprogram or “tune” the vehicles’ on-board diagnostic systems. These programs would tamper with, render inaccurate and disable the monitoring functions of the on-board diagnostics systems so they would no longer detect malfunctions in the emissions control systems.
Pro Diesel will be sentenced on June 14, and Endrizzi Diesel will be sentenced on June 29.
[Related: How to delete emissions problems without deleting the entire system]
