The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed regulation on climate and emissions might affect the trucking industry. These rules might require the companies trading publicly to disclose to the public and to the investors their data regarding the impact and potential risk due to climate.

Companies registered to SEC, based on the regulations which have three scopes, may have available information regarding direct (scope1), indirect (scope 2) and supply chain (scope 3) based greenhouse gas emissions.

Also, companies need to share other information such as:

• Monitoring and management in relation of climate risks
• Effects on strategy short to long term due to risks related to climate
• Potential financial impact due to severe weather

This type of regulation is being put in place in main global markets such as Japan, EU or United Kingdom, which can provide investors parity while making investment decisions. The scope 3 emissions might have the biggest impact on small freight companies in case the retailers they work for are focused or required to reduce them.

Even though small companies are exempt and do not need to report on scope 3, big pressure could fall on small fleet companies and owner-operators, since the large retailers might want the data related to scope 3 to be available. It is already hard for the small operators since they are lacking resources for any back-office work needed. Today half of the trucking companies are single owner-operators.