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Editor’s note: This is the first story in a series about trucking companies’ conflicts with investors over environmental reporting and goal-setting proposals.
Major trucking companies are rejecting calls from investment firms for strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Tables for Paccar, Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings and Old Dominion Freight Line recommend votes against proposals involving target setting and pressure disclosures expected to be brought before shareholders at upcoming annual meetings.
The positions of the U.S. trucking, trucking and LTL manufacturing giants show tension between the companies and some investors who argue that the companies need to do more to meet their corporate responsibility. Rejecting the proposals, the companies defended their performance in environmental management.
For Paccar’s annual meeting on April 30Morgan Stanley-owned Calvert Research and Management is pushing the OEM for more accountability.
The investment firm wants Paccar to provide an annual report on its lobbying and policy efforts, detailing how those events align with the Paris Agreement’s goal of reducing global warming. Calvert’s proposal also wants the company to address any misalignment between the environmental treaty and the OEM’s lobbying activities.
At last year’s annual meeting, the shareholders voted 47% in favor and 53% against the proposal.
This year, Paccar’s board advises again shareholders to vote against the measure, saying that an annual environmental report already does this.
The board also said the OEM “is a global environmental leader and recognized for its innovative trucks with battery electric systems, hydrogen combustion, hydrogen fuel cells and natural gas engines,” noting that the Kenworth, Peterbilt and DAF brands have many zero-emission models. emissions production.
The company also launched a joint venture last September with Cummins and a Daimler subsidiary to create a multibillion-dollar commercial truck battery plant.
“PACCAR’s leadership in sustainability strengthens the environment, improves customer operations and benefits shareholders,” the board said.
As the Environmental Protection Agency continues Phase 3 greenhouse gas emissions, OEM it will have to find ways to comply with tougher standards — up to 40 percent tougher for day and sleeper cabs attached to trailers compared to Phase 2 standards for the 2032 model year.
The agency expects manufacturers can meet the goal with a variety of solutions, including zero-emission technologies, traditional combustion engine vehicles and other alternatives, such as hybrids, the EPA told Trucking Dive in an email.