Hsinchu County Environmental Protection Bureau is committed to improve air quality of the county and provide citizens a clean and refreshing living environment with the efforts of diesel-fueled vehicle pollution control, and entrusts the “inspection plan for diesel vehicles exhaust Inspection stations.” It is an attempt to improve the air quality of Hsinchu County and achieve pollution reduction and environmental protection through surprise inspection and servicing programs. This plan was focused on the inspections on diesel-fueled vehicles operating in Hsinchu County which were called for inspections at the check stations throughout the county based on citizens’ complaints and visual inspections on the emissions. In addition, license identification systems were deployed across the self-management areas in the county for inspecting the emission of these vehicles.
As the plan was executed, 2,787 vehicles were informed for inspections at stations and 148 were rejected. In total, 2,639 vehicles completed the inspection and 103 failed the inspection with a failure rate of 3.9%. Among those completing the inspection, those that are 12-18 years old and those with engine displacement between 6000 and 7000 c.c. exhibited higher failure rate; for mileage, the opacity was increased general with mileage; for type of vehicle, the failure rate was higher with small business trucks in 2018.
For roadside inspections, 1,028 vehicles were stopped for inspection and 61 were inspected based on visual inspection and black list. Among the 61 inspected, 32 failed the inspection with a failure rate of 52.5%. The findings of roadside inspections indicated that the opacity was higher with business trucks and the failure rate for opacity was higher with small private trucks. At present, visual emission inspection was performed on 14,621 vehicles. Visual inspection notices were issued to 71 of them. A large proportion of those spotted for dense emission were 18 years or older.
The audits in the air quality zones (formerly clean air zones) were intensified this year. 20 joint audits were performed during the plan in several autonomous management areas and 368 vehicles were inspected. 40 sessions of visual inspection on emission were performed and 27 vehicles were informed for inspection. 76,522 license plates were identified as a part of the audits and notices for inspection were issued to 2,104 vehicles. In addition, the audits were widened on phase 1 and phase 2 old diesel-fueled vehicles in the autonomous management areas. Inspection notices were issued to 936 old diesel-fueled vehicles along with the information of subsidies for retiring old diesel-fueled vehicles.
For the assistance in handling citizens’ complaints, 76 complaints were received, 42 subjects were informed for inspection and 41 of them were inspected for case closure.
A part of this year’s plan is to help the Environmental Protection Bureau with the promotion of replacement and installation of emission filters. A campaign series was unfolded, including assistance in organizing propaganda presentations, questionnaire surveys, visits to local businesses and intensified audits on old vehicles. As of today, all phase 1 large passenger cars were retired throughout the jurisdiction of Hsinchu County.
The improvement for the reduction of pollutant emission is estimated to come from the improvement of highly polluting vehicles that failed in inspections and the pre-inspection servicing of vehicles. It is also estimated that the plan has helped with reducing 27.28 tons/year of particulate pollutants.
