The recession has taken its toll on class 8 truck sales. Trucking companies were among the first to feel the squeeze of the recession when diesel prices soared to around five dollars a gallon. When fuel prices came back down in 2009, many transportation companies were playing catch up with their finances.
It is feasible to put off buying that shiny new rig for another year or two. Many transportation companies have an aging fleet of trucks that they have opted to fix rather than replace. In the short term, many companies are faced with fixing rather than replacing just to survive. In the long though, this puts the company in a very bad situation. Suddenly trucking companies have to either replace two new trucks in the same year or reduce the size of their fleet.
In 2010 there are new emissions regulations on new trucks that raise the cost of trucks $6,000 to $10,000 depending on the truck. This increase is going to make it even more difficult for trucking companies to replace trucks in their fleet in 2010. Many companies may continue to park their trucks as a result. It has become too expensive to keep running with the price of diesel, insurance, equipment, living expenses, heftier fines, etc. It is obvious to me why I am constantly seeing semi trucks sitting in empty lots with for sale signs in the windows.
So how can we get our drivers back out on the open road? President Obama seems so concerned with health care, the war, and elections in Massachusetts. How do we stop the inflation that is caused as a result of higher transportation costs?
It seems the government could offer incentives to drivers looking to purchase some of these new more environmentally friendly trucks. The whole premise of the cash for clunkers program was to take vehicles off the road that are harmful to the environment. I remember pulling through my local car dealership while the mechanics were seizing the motors of the clunker cars. It was required by the government that the engines were destroyed by pouring a sodium silicate solution into the oil reservoir. Then the engines were revved until the engine was completely locked up. Now if it is this crucial that older cars be taken off of the road, then should we not do the same for semi-trucks? After all, trucks are constantly running non-stop up and down the highways.
Without some healthy incentives put in effect to help trucking companies, it looks as if inflation will continue to be on the rise. It is evident at the supermarket register when you are taking the same amount off groceries away and it costs you $10 to $20 more. Relief for transport companies would be the best place to begin fixing the economy because it was the first line of industry to be effected by the recession.
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