Auto transporter files for Chapter 11; affects 16 companies

The headline should have read "Truck Transporter..." Anyway, Transport Topics published an article on 6/9/08 that touches on the loss of business by the new truck transporters. TT referred to a report by R.L. Polk & Co. They project that new Class 8 vehicle registrations will fall 26% this year, the second straight annual drop. This is due to the economy; and the backlash from the pre-buy sales boom in 2006, before the EPA engine regulations. TT quoted Stephen Sabo, vice chairman of the Technology & Maintenance Council of American Trucking Associations: "Fleet maintenance managers have worked on extending the service life of trucks. We started adjusting trade cycles when the EGR models (exhaust gas recirculation engines) came out that year. Truckload carriers went from three years to four, or four years to five." Sabo knows of one 2,000-tractor LTL fleet that has not purchased a single truck that uses the January 2007 generation of engines.