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Spending more than $4 a gallon for diesel is hard enough on fleets’ bottom lines, but buying mislabeled fuel that could harm your vehicles adds injury to insult.

The advent of ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) was not met with wild cheers from the trucking industry to begin with, and troubles with mislabeled pumps certainly have not helped.

It all started with the EPA’s Clean Air Highway Diesel rule of 2006—aimed at cutting particulate emissions—which required a 97 percent reduction in sulfur content of highway diesel fuel from 500 to 15 parts per million on 80 percent of diesel fuel produced for highway vehicles, beginning that September.

The requirement was intended to make sure ULSD would be available for use in 2007 engines and newer diesel vehicles that require it. It is only a first step, as beginning June 1, 2010, all highway diesel fuel must be ultra-low sulfur. And while ULSD has been available at retail stations for a year and a half, there are still some (though fewer) problems with mislabeled pumps that can cause serious problems for fleet vehicles.

A 2007 EPA study showed that more than 94 percent of diesel fuel sold in the country was ULSD; well above the requirement. The percentages of stations selling ULSD with a legal sulfur content was 97.8 percent in 2006; in 2007 it was more than 99 percent.

Things appear to be getting better, but mislabeled pumps and confusing labeling is still causing issues for some fleets, and remains one more thing for fleet managers to keep track of.

Watchful Eye

For Tom Wildish, maintenance supervisor with Enid, OK-based Paul Transportation, Inc., the problem starts with the fact that labels for LSD and ULSD often look similar, while in other cases the labels for ULSD are different, depending on the retailer. He says this causes problems for drivers and fuel sellers alike, which means he has to be constantly vigilant.