Old Pickup Trucks

Work Trucks and Car Allowance Rebate System Discussed

    In the trucking industry the sale of new trucks has plummeted dramatically in the last couple years. It's as bad as the auto industry; actually it is a little bit worse. The new car allowance rebate system (CARS) was set up to help the auto industry; where people who had owned an old car (clunker) that got bad gas mileage for more than a year could trade it in and get $4500 rebate on their new car.

    This was enacted by Congress as part of the economic stimulus to help get the auto industry going again, while simultaneously getting people to buy cars that got better gas mileage. The state of California along with many other states have enacted rules on trucking companies and businesses that own fleets of trucks to try to get them to buy more fuel-efficient vehicles that put out less pollution. The Department of Transportation and the car allowance rebate system also provides for work trucks.

    The DOE website states that; "Any heavy work truck traded in for a large pickup or van can earn a $3,500 rebate, regardless of the fuel economy, but the work truck must be a vehicle from model year 2001 or earlier. That same restriction applies to work trucks traded for new work trucks, but such trade-ins can only earn the $3,500 rebate if the new work truck is of a similar size or smaller than the old work truck. The act only allows $75 million for rebates on work truck trade-ins, but that still allow for trade-ins of more than 21,400 work trucks."

    Small businesses that own large pickups or vans can also begin to replace their fleets and get a $4500 rebate as long as they buy vehicles that get 15 miles per gallon or better. This could help put more people to work in truck manufacturing facilities across the United States, as companies see if they can save money by investing in new more fuel-efficient fleets.

    This way they win in two different ways; first, they win by saving money on the purchase price by receiving a $3500 to $4500 rebate per vehicle, plus they end up with more fuel-efficient vehicles which will save them a huge amount of money in their deliveries and thus, lower their operational costs. Please consider all this.