Nobody likes getting a bill. But a $37,500 bill, I’d have to imagine that would cause more than an audible grown to you.
If you didn’t know, that’s the bill you are at risk of getting every day if you’re an active commercial vehicle repair facility, as that is the maximum fine levied by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for tampering with an engine, emission and after treatment system.
And I know what you’re thinking, “I’ve never done that, I’m not worried.”
Well to that I say two things:
- Keep up the good work and don’t ever start. At $37,500 per incident, it’s not worth it.
- Just because you haven’t tampered doesn’t mean you aren’t liable for a tampering fine.
If point No. 2 scares you that’s good. It should. Because it’s something that can happen.
As I wrote in this week’s Successful Dealer Special Report on emission tampering, “A service provider ignoring a clear violation is fined just the same as the service provider who actually performed the tampering.”
To the EPA, complicit to tampering equals tampering.
For more information on tampering and what you need to do stay safe, I urge you to check out my special report. I swear you can get through it all in 5-10 minutes, and hopefully you can learn something in the process.
According to a Successful Dealer reader survey for the article nearly 86 percent of dealers believe the industry is not well informed about tampering enforcement and punishment.
I’d like to think this article can help lower that number at least a little bit.
So please check it out and when you’re done feel free to try our tampering quiz. It’s only six questions, and it address potential tampering situations that occur in aftermarket service facilities every day. Thanks.
