A new pilot project named “Green Trucks China” was recently initiated by the World Bank Transport Team in support of Guangzhou’s efforts to improve air quality as part of the preparation for the 2010 Asian Games. This project is to retrofit a representative sampling of trucks from three local carrier fleets operating in Guangzhou, one of China’s most important manufacturing and trade centers. According to the task team leader Shomik Mehndiratta, the goal is to develop a “proof of concept” program by Oct. 2009 that aims to enhance the fuel economy of truck fleet, reduce carbon emission and other air pollutants, and consequently obtain GHG emission savings. The Bank mission visited Guangzhou from Aug 5 to 12 to move the Green Truck Project forward. Other experts from Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities Center (CAI-Asian Center), Cascade Sierra Solutions (CSS), US-EPA, and Tsinghua University also joined the mission. CAI-Asia Center is acting as the project manager and responsible for pilot project design, partnership building, implementation supervision and reporting, and scale-up opportunity identification. The mission has achieved successful outcomes in the following six aspects: 1) Scheduled Installation on three local representative carriers’ fleets has been completed and supervised by diesel truck experts from the mission team. These trucks have been equipped with SmartWay-verified technologies, including advanced aerodynamics (skirts and nosecone) and improved tire systems (low resistance tires, aluminum wheels and tire pressure monitoring systems). These new features are expected to achieve as high as 14% of total fuel saving for long-haul trucks, and 4% for short-haul trucks.   
2) A 6-week monitoring and data collection plan has been established with three local companies and the plan will be managed and supported by local coordinators, experts from Tsinghua University and supervisors from CAI-Asia China Program Office. The anticipated test period will cover six weeks, lasting from Aug 15 to Sep 30, 2009, subject to extension upon needs. The final deliverable will be a report summarizing the test results of fuel savings and emission reduction and assessing the impact of the applied strategies and technologies. 3) A two day training workshop “Smart Drivers for Trucking in China” was delivered to selected experienced drivers and managers from the participating companies by Professor Fu Lixin from Tsinghua University, Mr. Joel Smith from CSS and Christopher Polovick from USEPA. The workshop includes six individual modules on SmartWay training, plus another one-hour training targeting those who would further serve as instructors for their colleagues on this topic. The expert team and trainees had made dynamic interaction throughout the training process and much useful feedback collected from the audience side would contribute to development of next step training materials for truck drivers in the whole industry. 
A driver is asking US experts questions during the Smart Drivers training course 4) A Round Table Meeting with leading shippers such as Coca Cola, P&G, Lenovo, IKEA and Adidas was successfully organized by the Guangzhou chapter of Business for Social Responsibility (BSR, a non-profit organization headquartered in San Francisco), SmartWay Program of USEPA and CAI-Asia Center. All the major participating companies expressed their keen interests in this project and provided valuable feedbacks from their perspectives on how to develop Green Truck Program using market based approach and who should become the key facilitator among Shippers, Carriers, Technology Venders, and Financiers. 
Aug.11th Round Table Meeting with leading shippers
5) A Constructive Dialogue was held with the officials of Guangdong Provincial Environmental Protection Bureau (EPB) to upgrade the Green Truck program to the provincial level. The EPB officials conveyed the message that the provincial government would provide full support to promote Green Truck Program to the higher level, and showed their intent to scale up this project to the truck freight industry. 6) The mission ended with a wrap-up meeting attended by officials from Guangzhou Environmental Protection Bureau, Guangzhou Transport Commission, Project Management Office of Guangzhou Urban Utilities and Landscaping Bureau, Guangzhou Transport Police, and truck companies. After briefing the updated information on SmartWay and Green Trucks Pilot Project, the World Bank mission team discussed with officials and representatives on the next step cooperation. The meeting finally reached an agreement on intent to scale up the project, and a concrete work plan would come out based on the testing result. 
Aug. 12th Meeting with Guangzhou Environmental Protection Bureau, Guangzhou Urban Utilities and Landscaping Bureau, Guangzhou Transport Commission The Bank team expects that this pilot project will build a foundation for future larger scale projects at provincial or national level.
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