The American Transportation Research Institute has released an updated version of its listing of state and local idling regulations, which can be accessed as a cab card or on the Web

. The new listing includes new idling limits in North Carolina, West Virginia and Detroit.

Specific changes include:

* A new law in North Carolina, limiting idling to five minutes, with the exception of idling for air conditioning or heating sleeper berth compartments during federally mandated rest or sleep periods. This exemption expires on May 1, 2011. Other exemptions include the idling of engines which meet the California low-NOx idling standard and when using an auxiliary power unit.

* A new 15-minute limit in West Virginia. An exemption is provided for sleeping or resting in a sleeper berth when temperatures are less than 40 degrees or greater than 75 degrees. This exemption expires on May 1, 2012. An exemption is also provided for trucks displaying a CARB-issued low-NOx idle label.

* A regulation in Detroit limiting idling to five minutes. An exemption is provided for vehicles which remain motionless for more than two hours when the temperature is less than 25 degrees.

The American Transportation Research Institute, a non-profit research organization, monitors the development of idling regulations across the country on an ongoing basis and maintains the listing as a free service to help trucking companies and truck drivers comply with the increasing number of state and local idling regulations.

More info: www.atri-online.org