Fleets Say Freight Boom Spurs New Purchases

leet managers said they are buying significantly more trailers than a year ago, but not for the reason analysts offered last fall when making predictions.

Business is good, they said, and they need vans, flatbeds and tankers to move their customers’ freight, both with their own highway tractors and on an intermodal basis with the railroads. In contrast to last year’s conventional wisdom, the Jan. 4 hours-of-service rules for drivers — under challenge since July by a federal appellate court — have been only a minor impetus for the buying spree.

“We have about 2,800 trailers now,” said Jerry Bowman, president of Cardinal Logistics Management in Concord, N.C. “Most of the increase over the past year [662 trailers] has been from growth in business. We’ve added perhaps 150 to 200 trailers because of hours of service.”