EPA is easing the 2027 truck rules

Plus diesel at a fresh high and 6,476 live locations

Author

Reed Loustalot
August 28, 2026

TRUCK PARKING CLUB

Friday Bulletin • August 28, 2026

Good Morning Truck Parking Club Members,

The Miles You Burn to Park

Diesel just hit its highest weekly average in months, and every extra mile you drive hunting for a spot burns more of it. We want the real math from your seat: what changes about how you run when fuel spikes, how far out of your way you go just to park, and what you figure that detour adds to your fuel bill. Nine quick questions.

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The Big Thing

The 2026 Trucks Are Almost Sold Out. The 2027 Rules Are Still Being Written.

If you have been eyeing a new truck, the ground is shifting under you this month, and most of it is happening in rooms you never see.

Start with the order boards. Class 8 orders came in around 22,000 trucks in July, up roughly 68 to 75% from a year ago depending on whose count you read. That sounds like a boom, and the demand is real, but the number that matters is the one underneath it. Orders fell about 30% from June. Not because buyers backed off. Because there is almost nothing left to buy. Analysts at ACT and FTR both say calendar-year 2026 production is essentially sold out. The build slots are gone.

Here is why the timing lands on you. Almost every model-year 2027 engine is expected to carry a manufacturer upcharge tied to new emissions compliance. For two years the trade press has warned about a 2027 pre-buy, drivers and fleets rushing to grab current-technology trucks before the price jumps. That rush already happened. The window to order a 2026 truck at 2026 money is basically closed.

But the rule everyone was bracing for is not settled. On July 14 the EPA proposed to soften its own 2027 engine rule. It keeps the underlying NOx standard in place, so the trucks still get cleaner, but it walks back the parts that were going to cost you. It rolls the emission-warranty periods back to today's shorter terms instead of the much longer ones in the 2023 rule, it eases the DEF derate rules that can strand a truck over a sensor fault, and it lets manufacturers keep building current-technology engines past 2026 by paying a penalty instead of flipping a switch overnight.

What this means for you. The doomsday version of 2027, a forced jump to unproven engines with a big sticker premium, is getting negotiated down in real time. Several engine makers have already said they will use those penalty provisions to keep offering both current and new platforms well into 2027. So if you run your own authority and you are shopping, you have more room than the headlines suggested, but less time to grab a 2026 build.

One date to watch, and it is this weekend. The public comment window on the EPA proposal closes August 29. After that the agency writes the final rule, and the 2027 order boards open behind it. Until that pen drops, nobody, not the truck makers and not their customers, knows the real price of a 2027 truck.

If a new truck is anywhere on your horizon, this is the month to run the math, not next spring. The rules are being set right now.

Mile Markers

Where the numbers landed this week.

Diesel: $5.652/gal, up 19.8 cents on the week. That is the second straight sharp gain, nearly 40 cents over two weeks, and it now sits about $1.94 above where it was a year ago. (EIA)

Spot rates (all-in, national average): Van $2.88, Reefer $3.36, Flatbed $3.50 per mile. Linehaul eased again, a seventh straight week of softening, with van and flatbed off a few cents and reefer about flat. All three are still running well above a year ago. (DAT)

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News

Wyoming Closed Two I-80 Parking Areas to Build 365 New Spaces. WYDOT has started work on 365 new truck parking spaces on I-80 near Evanston, in the tight southwest corner of the state. Good news later, headache now: the eastbound and westbound truck parking areas near mile marker 6 by the Bear River exit are closed and stay closed through October 31, then reopen before winter. If you run I-80 through Evanston, plan your shutdown somewhere else until then. Read more on WYDOT

Paper Medical Card Grace Period Ends October 11 in Eight States. FMCSA now pulls your medical certification straight from its national registry, but eight states are not on the system yet: Alaska, California, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, and Oklahoma. If your CDL is from one of those, you can still carry a paper medical card through October 11. After that, make sure your examiner has filed your exam electronically so your license does not get downgraded. Read more on FMCSA

ATRI Wants Your Top Issues, and Drivers Get Their Own List. ATRI opened its annual Top Industry Issues survey on August 24, and it runs through October 2. It is the one industry ranking that breaks out a separate top 10 for drivers, so parking, pay, and detention only land high if drivers put them there. Last year drivers were about 30% of the responses. Take ten minutes and weigh in. Read more on Transport Topics

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