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I am a partner of Riverview International Trucks in West
Sacramento. Riverview is a full service truck dealership that has
80 employees, sells over 400 new and used trucks per year, and has
a rental and lease department that has over 350 trucks in its
fleet.
Riverview and it's 80 employees are very concerned that the
proposed legislation is going to put our customers out of business,
is going to hurt the financial stability of our company, and is
going to put our dealership at a competitive disadvantage with
dealerships and lease and rental companies that are based in other
states outside of California.
The proposed legislation will put California business owners out
of business. They will be forced to shut down instead of attempting
to find loans that do not exist to take on new equipment. Do you
know that a new truck over 33,000 GVWR has nearly 20% of its cost
is taxes? State sales tax at 7.75% plus Federal Excise Tax at 12%.
Do you know that finance companies are not financing commercial
vehicles due to the issues with the banking institutions? My #2
truck financer GE Capitol has frozen all of its capitol for
commercial vehicles. My #1 lender Navistar Financial now requires A
and B credit to have substantial down payments at less than
aggressive interest rates. 
These California businesses that have equity in the equipment that
you are forcing them to replace are now finding out that the used
equipment has little or no value in the California Market Place.
These Proposed laws in combination of the economy have killed the
used truck market place. My dealership has 60 used trucks on the
lot that are all 2000 model and newer that we cannot sell because
of these laws. You have scared the 2nd user into fixing his old
equipment and not investing in good used trucks. Sounds
counterproductive??
My competitors in the lease and rental world namely Ryder and
Penske are located in all 50 states. They are simply taking there
used equipment and sending it out of state. We do not have that
network to spread the used trucks to. I heard one of my customers,
a California based business, was selling some 2004 model trucks
with low miles because his business had slowed. He actually took a
low offer from a competitor of his who sent the 2004 units out of
state to one of their many job sites. The company simply has been
sending 2008 model trucks with 2007 emmission engines to California
and sending their used equipment to other states to use. Riverview
nor other California based businesses do not have this option. We
are losing money on our used trucks because of your legislation and
we are at a competitive disadvantage in the market place.
When customers close their business we lose sales. We lose sales
the state loses sales tax revenue. When we lose enough sales we
will downsize. When we downsize you have people out or work not
spending the paycheck, not creating all the taxes that a working
employee creates.
Riverview may gain some new truck sales with the proposed
legislation but it will not equate to the loss of business from our
customers, the loss of money on used trucks, and the competitive
disadvantage you have created.
My last point is you have to look at the current economic
situation that the State of California is in. Look at the fleet of
trucks that the state owns and runs to fix the roads, to go to
fires, to transport state owned goods. For you to comply with the
proposed legislation it would cost millions and millions of
dollars. To put particulate filters on some of these units is a
piss poor alternative that is an expensive band aid that will last
only a few years. Why expect the business owners of California to
comply with this legislation if the State of California cannot
comply on its own fleet? The State will go out of business as
well...

Attrition and a sliding scale will put new units into the hands of
California Businesses. In 2011 do not allow a 1990 or older vehicle
to be registered or brought into California. In 2012 move to 1991
and 1992 model years. In 2013 move to 1993 and 1994 model years.
You will get to where you want to get to in time. We all want
cleaner air. We all want our trucks to run cleaner. But at what
cost?

Thanks
Eric Bassett
Partner
Riverview International Trucks LLC
916-371-3110
www.riverview-trucks.com