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California environmental regulators have delayed until June the first compliance deadline for large fleets seeking to phase in SmartWay technologies for 2010 and older model 53-foot box-type trailers and the tractors that pull them.

In what it called an emergency action, the California Air Resources Board on Feb. 29 informed the state’s Office of Administrative Law that it plans to amend the tractor-trailer greenhouse gas regulation to allow the compliance deadline delay caused by an “oversight.”

The amendment gives the owners of large fleets — those with 21 or more of the older trailers — who chose a plan known as “Option 2” until June 1 to register and equip 20% of their 53-foot box trailer fleets with aerodynamic technologies.

The amendment allows large fleets that have chosen Option 2 to avoid having to install the SmartWay technologies on their entire fleet by the end of the year.

The CARB board intended the option as a means of economic relief from the prolonged recession by allowing the fleets to spread their compliance costs across five years rather than requiring them to be in full compliance by Jan. 1, 2013.

The emergency action was the result of a delay by CARB in formally approving the flexible alternative after the deadline for fleets to register by July 1, 2011, said Mike Tunnell, director of environmental affairs for American Trucking Associations.

“The regulation changes were not officially approved until December of 2011,” Tunnel said. “So the registration date was before the regulation became official.”

As a result many of the fleets were taking a wait-and-see stance until the final regulation changes were made.

Those choosing the option now have until June 1 to register and equip 20% of their fleet with the SmartWay technologies.

“If you don’t do this, 100% of your trailer fleet needs to be compliant by Jan. 1, 2013,” Tunnell said. “That’s the important message. So if you don’t want to do 100% by the end of the year, you better sign up for this option.”

CARB estimated the retrofits will cost from $1,900 to $4,200 per trailer and that the regulation will apply to as many as 1.5 million trailers operating on California highways.

As of late last month, CARB said eight large trailer fleet owners that collectively operate more than 73,000 trailers have indicated they wanted to participate in Option 2, but had not submitted their registration request in time for the prior July 1, 2011 deadline.

CARB officials said as the agency began implementing the flexibility provision last year they received “substantially fewer requests” than expected from fleets to participate.

That led the agency to believe that many fleet owners were “simply unaware” of the phase-in option and may have therefore missed the deadline for the opportunity to participate, said a CARB document.

An earlier option known as Option 1 required that large fleets have 15% of their tractor-trailers equipped by Jan. 1 of 2012 and the entire fleet phased-in by 2016.

Option 2 also calls for full compliance by Jan. 1, 2016.

The emergency action, however, will give those who chose Option 1 until June 1 to revise their implementation plans while still meeting the phase-in deadlines.

Tunnell said that had the agency not declared the rule change an emergency, it would have further delayed installation of the SmartWay technologies.

“If they did that you can imagine the timelines would be pushed back even further,” Tunnell said. “This is probably the most expedient manner they can do it.”