Nov 2, 2026
5 min read
About the client
Quinn Rentals provides commercial trucks for rent in California, USA. It is part of Quinn Company, an authorized Caterpillar dealer.
The Quinn Rentals fleet includes 530 heavy-duty trucks used for temporary and long-term projects.
Challenge
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) sets emissions regulations that commercial fleets operating in the state must follow. Quinn Rentals' heavy-duty OBD-equipped trucks fall under the Clean Truck Check program, which requires emissions inspections every 6 months (increasing to quarterly testing in October 2027).
Failure to meet Clean Truck Check requirements may carry civil penalties of up to $10,000 per day per vehicle.
For a rental company, manual emissions inspections hit the business model directly. Bringing a truck back for testing interrupts the customer’s work even when the check is scheduled in advance. Each inspection also requires coordinating vehicle availability and driver time, as well as paying third-party testing fees. Avoiding these interruptions can give a rental provider a competitive advantage.
Quinn Rentals needed a way to automate Clean Truck Check testing and submission as part of normal vehicle operations. It also needed straightforward access to vehicle locations and operational data. The company turned to Summitec LLC, a telematics solutions provider based in California, USA, and a Wialon partner since 2015.
Quinn Rentals had a practical reason to choose Summitec: since 2019, the provider had managed GPS tracking for 50 vehicles at Quinn Transportation, a related business. This gave Quinn Rentals a chance to see its service and technology in use before entrusting it with the new reporting requirements. The new solution would cover both fleets: Quinn Rentals’ 530 trucks and Quinn Transportation’s 50, for a total of 580 vehicles.
Solution
Summitec built a solution using CARB-certified GPS tracking hardware with Wialon Lite. The hardware handles emissions testing and submissions in the background, while Wialon Lite provides real-time fleet tracking and access to the compliance report.
Hardware
Summitec's CARB-certified hardware continuously transmits the data needed for automatic Clean Truck Check submissions.
“The continuous connection matters; non-continuously connected devices are available on the market, but they require the vehicle to be brought in for each report. That means downtime, driver involvement, and an extra cost every reporting cycle,” explains Summitec.
The solution was ready when Quinn Rentals needed it: before the Clean Truck Check regulation rolled out in California, Summitec had already spent 2 years working with its hardware partner to apply the required algorithms to the tracker and obtain CARB certification.
Software
Wialon Lite gives Quinn Rentals a real-time view of its active fleet: vehicle location and operational data.
“Wialon Lite proved to be the ideal platform for Quinn Rentals' needs: lightweight, cost-effective, and purpose-built for fleets that require reliable real-time tracking without the complexity of a full enterprise deployment. It's a perfect fit for a midsize rental operation,” explains the Summitec team.
Summitec also developed the CTC Quinn Rentals & Transportation Report. The report combines data from Wialon Lite and the CARB-certified hardware platform, allowing users to check vehicle compliance status alongside fleet tracking information. It has become a key part of the company's day-to-day fleet management.
Rental fleets change frequently: new trucks join, while others leave for replacement or auction. To simplify fleet administration, Summitec developed an automated workflow that keeps Wialon Lite synchronized with the hardware management system, SIM management platform, and fleet roster. Instead of updating each system separately whenever a vehicle is activated or deactivated, Summitec can manage these changes in a single operation, reducing manual work and keeping fleet records consistent.
Implementation
The Clean Truck Check program and its reporting system were brand new, so there was no playbook to follow — Summitec had to learn an unfamiliar government submission platform from scratch. On top of that, Quinn Rentals & Quinn Transportation had a hard regulatory deadline for its 1st report. That left less than 1 month to install and configure certified devices across all 580 trucks, with no room for a phased rollout.
To pull it off, Summitec coordinated closely with its hardware partner to pre-configure and test every tracker before installation. Each vehicle connected successfully as soon as the device was installed, allowing its Clean Truck Check test results to be submitted on the required schedule.
The certified trackers' plug-and-play design helped, too: no complex installation and no specialized technician required.
Results
Quinn Rentals & Quinn Transportation met their 1st Clean Truck Check deadline in full compliance. Through Wialon Lite, the team can track its fleet and access the report to check each vehicle’s compliance status.
Summitec estimates that taking a single truck out of operation for manual emissions inspections could cost $4,700–8,700 annually in lost productivity, labor inefficiencies, fixed costs, and potential penalties for missed project deadlines. If the same annual cost estimate applies to all 580 trucks, the potential fleet-wide cost would be approximately $2.7–5 million.
Automatic, scheduled submissions using certified hardware reduce the risk of missed deadlines and manual reporting errors. Certain Clean Truck Check violations may carry civil penalties of up to $10,000 per day per vehicle.
Clean Truck Check test results are automatically submitted to CARB by a tracker connected to the truck’s engine control module (ECM), on schedule — every 6 months at the time of the project. That removes the burden of manual inspections, which would have meant coordinating vehicle availability and driver time.
Quinn Rentals can offer customers trucks that do not need to be brought back for routine emissions checks, alongside the fleet visibility provided by Wialon Lite.
“When regulations tighten in October 2027 and reporting becomes quarterly, Quinn Rentals will be ready without changing its current reporting workflow. And we’re already in conversations with other fleet operators looking for a proven, certified solution for this task,” says Summitec.
