There has been lots of talk in the industry about the American Petroleum Institute’s PC-11 lubricant specification, which is set to go into effect on December 1, 2016.
As described on page 4, Understanding PC-11, the impact of PC-11 will vary among fleets. But, what does seem to be consistent when speaking with fleet managers/owners, is the feeling that many of them are not overly concerned about the introduction of PC-11 and most of them want to carry just one oil.
Below, we have highlighted what a handful of fleets have to say about the imminent arrival of PC-11.
“I’m not too concerned about PC-11 but wondering if we will stock one or two oils. We are not opposed to stocking two oils. We do that now because we also service trucks for other companies.”
– Charlie Roundtree, shop manager, Alpha Transport (Salt Lake City), a tank carrier with 75 trucks operating mostly in the western United States.
“We are not concerned about PC-11. If anything, we anticipate the new (PC-11 compliant) oils should be better (than today’s CJ-4 oils). We’d definitely plan to carry just one oil type.” – Matt Hein, shop manager, Tri-Hi Transport (Merrill, WI), a 48-state refrigerated carrier with roughly 90 trucks.
“From what I know, the new category is split into two categories, one more for old motors, the other (targeted) for new motors. We are not too concerned, but until everything is settled, it’s a matter of learning and waiting. If we can, we’d like to stick with one oil type.”
– Jay White, maintenance manager, Carleton Transport (Greta, NE), 48-state tank carrier with 25 trucks, each running more than 120,000 miles annually.
“Our (lubricant distributor) Lube-Tech, visited us with a representative from Mobil (Delvac), and they educated us on PC-11. We know we’d rather stock one oil type if that’s possible, but my only question is about backward compatibility.”
– Justin Brevik, director of maintenance, Bay & Bay Transport (Rosemount, MN), a dry-bulk carrier with roughly 500 trucks.
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