Schneider, Wal-Mart Top Lists of Year's Most Expanded Fleets

chneider National and Wal-Mart Stores topped the lists of for-hire and private carriers, respectively, that most expanded their trailer fleets over the past year, based on a review of data in the 2004 Transport Topics 100 lists of large U.S. and Canadian carriers.

Schneider, the nation’s largest truckload carrier, had about 48,000 trailers at the end of 2003, a gain of 7.1% from the 44,822 trailers at the end of 2002. Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest retailer, boosted its trailer fleet to 38,000 from 30,000, an increase of 26.7%.

At Schneider, some of the increase was due to growth in the number of intermodal shipments, said Dave Geyer, the company’s general manager of truckload services.