Overworking trucks

we have leased trucks. what my company does, is get the mileage from each truck, then transfers that truck to another location where a truck there has more miles.

higher mileage trucks, get turned in for newer trucks.

i have worked for companies that trade them in at 300,000 mile, and other companies at 500,000 miles.

sorta amounts to a guarantee they will get a better trade in for a new one, and the new owner still gets "some" warranty time left on the traded in units.

 

It's not the miles it's the age. Many companies lease, and that dictates when they go. Other companies take depreciation, and how they prefer accounting decides that. Some take accelerated depreciation, others do a 6 year.

 

Frankly we quit worrying about those details.

FFE gave us a brand new virgin tractor in 2001 at about 16 miles on the ODO. We put 221,000 on it in a little bit over 9 months flat as a Husband Wife team. If we stayed with FFE towards that second winter there is no question there is another virgin tractor waiting for us to take out.

We break em in, wear em out and they get handed down to solos. After another year or two at most they develop too many mechanical fixits and break all the time. Out they go. New tractor please.

That was one of the reasons we left FFE, our brand new Century lost a total of 3 weeks productivity between month 8 and month 9 sitting in freightliner dealerships for a variety of wore out stuff that kept breaking or burning up. We ran the hell out of those tractors in them days. It never stopped unless its a enforced half day halt once a week with engine off to ensure that auto transmission does not brick and require a tow like it did twice that year. It's also a chance for wife and I to get a rental car and go away, play tourist in a ball game, museum or take a visit to the old family ancestral homes where possible.

The oldest fleet truck is easy. I road tested with tech trans or transtech/keywest of Baltimore they had a International Eagle of a earlier vintage very nice truck in it's day full wide cab, huge condo sleeper etc.

When I road tested that tractor trailer, it had over 3 million miles on it. The transmission sounded like it's a can full of beans and gears being shaken and stirred. Then scattered allover that pretty blacktop Maryland built not long ago. She shook, rattled, make noises that were pretty scary to me and so on. I don't think that tractor was much more than say 15 years old in total. But being over 3 million? erf. The frame on that thing actually had double diamond plates welded here and there in various spots.

I knew I would not want to hire on to that outfit. So I poisoned the roadtrip by constantly complaining to the tester about this, that, fiddy bits, and most anything it did all the way up and all the way back. Complain complain complain. As luck would have it the big boss say thank you, we will call you. (Never....)

phew.

Remember I do not talk about them old iron. Half them old irons don't have odos that work anymore. But they are a joyful journey into the past to drive them old things. None of that nanny computer crap telling me what to do.

 

Company I work for trades somewhere between 450k and 500k ... about every 3 years roughly. Reefers are also traded at about 36 months.

 

You're asking the wrong people.

There are other factors but more or less the life time within the fleet is defined by the needs of the company and the lease agreement.

 

Depends on how good your maintenance program is. Our trucks are home at the shop most weekends. We have a 99 still in the fleet and it’s probably in better shape than some of the mega trucks that are only a couple years old.

 

Let me ask you folks this simple question.

Leasing and trading in is all well and good. However.

Whatever happened to outright ownership, free and clear and maintain them? Railroads get 50 or more years out of a engine when it's treated properly in terms of how it's run with appropriate tonnage and schedules plus decent shop support. There are some engines dating to before WW2 that are still running today on some short lines. Maryland Midland Railroad comes to mind in Carroll County near Union Bridge. (It used to be western maryland until Hurricane Anges destroyed the line via flooding in the early to mid 70's)

Surely there has to be good trucking companies capable of buying rigs outright, tending them over the years and enjoying the idea that there is no more payments to be made on those tractors. The money can be saved up or put to use elsewhere.

 

It seems like the larger carriers pretty much run a truck for about 3 years then get a new one?

We're a little different in that we have quite a few trucks with 800,000 on them and even a few with 1 million miles on them. The truck i just came out of has over 800,000 on it and it flew at 85mph+.

It's CONDITION, not age or mileage.

 

Because that business model doesn’t work when they keep guys out on the road for 4-6 weeks at a time.

We have 6 mechanics that work Friday through Monday. Our trucks get pulled in and everything is inspected, it’s greased, anything we write up is fixed, then it’s washed and parked.

 

Not necessarily. It's about being in the game for the long run and making use of rapid depreciation schedule and tax benefits, and maximizing trade:new value and keeping upkeep costs minimized over the long term.

Also today's new trucks are simply more dependable and reliable. In the competitive reefer business, this is critical. After about year 4, they're not so much as reliable and the curve starts to head down quickly.