A truck hitting 500,000 miles is like a person turning 40. I’m not sure about you, but that’s when I noticed I lost a step, and the ones I took always hurt because my knee cartilage was all worn down from waiting tables and running from my past. My neck and ankles started to crack at the slightest rotation. And my metabolism slowed, too.
What happens to heavy-duty trucks at the half-million-mark ain’t all that different. As Brian Antonellis, current SVP of fleet operations at Fleet Advantage, describes in our story on prebuy pandemonium and procurement planning, “you start to see mpg drop off and the [repair and maintenance] cost curve increases around 450,000 miles.”
When you start to trot that truck out past then, you’ll notice the aftertreatment system needs more attention, the suspension might need work, and electrical wires could be a bit askew from absorbing all those road vibrations. As a truck ascends toward being over the hill, each mile gets a little more expensive. Your drivers fuel up a little more often, and the trucks are in the shop more. These almost-middle-aged trucks add as much as 15 cents/mile for maintenance alone, Antonellis said, based off a large pool of Fleet Advantage customers’ maintenance data.
It’s a good thing trucks aren’t really like people, because at this point Antonellis recommends you just get rid of the thing when it gets too old, which he defines as 450,000-500,000 miles, and trade it in for a hot new number—probably something with great big ol’ luminous LED headlights, a sleek aerodynamic body, and an integrated powertrain to boot. Oh, and it probably weighs less, too. That would totally devastate the current truck’s self-esteem.
But trucks don’t have feelings, so you don’t have to feel bad dumping them when they start to age. It’s a typical big-fleet mentality to sell off older trucks, but not everyone has the luxury of trading in models when they start to get a few wrinkles, like they’re Leo DiCaprio or something. The little guys and gals don’t have as many options, especially with the diminishing returns on trade-ins and high interest rates. Often they are stuck with the truck they’ve got and hope to stay ahead of the maintenance items and pray it generates more revenue than it costs to run and repair.
Those costs rise every year over 500,000 miles, so the law of diminishing returns kicks in. And it’s probably kicking in for a lot of fleets right now, as 2019 was the modern highpoint for Class 8 sales with 276,000, while semis averaged 100,000 miles a year.
Read more: Trucking's Fountain of Youth: How to keep older assets on the road
Such is life for a company that derives profits from commercial vehicles, and they know about the cyclical nature of trucking, cutthroat rates, and omnipresent threat of downtime. I doubt they’re looking for pity. I’d wager most just want to get by doing what they do until they sell—either due to success or age, going bankrupt, or dying.
Or until new laws kick in when the government decides to change things up and demand better results on the emissions front. The next big one is the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2027 NOx final rule to nearly eliminate the harmful fumes. The agency throws out big numbers on how much money will be saved by how much child asthma will allegedly be eliminated by 2045. Who knows how much of that is true, as cockroaches are also linked to child asthma. Why not attack them and leave trucking alone for awhile?
That aside, whoever makes those EPA projections will never be held accountable if found untrue. But fleets do have to account for how to afford all the new emissions systems coming in MY2027 and beyond, which could increase the price of a truck by $20,000-30,000, Antonellis said. And they have months to figure out how to refresh their fleets before the regulation takes effect, even as they try to maintain their current aging aftertreatment systems.
“Without a doubt, the most difficult part of the industry is either going to be the repairs and maintenance or the rules and regulations,” asserted Christopher DeFeo, president of a small stone wholesaler called DeFeo Materials. His 2019 trucks are also starting to show their age, but he only has one maintenance person, and in this economy he’s not sure what to do.
Some in his position may opt to prebuy if they can, or turn to leasing. Or maybe keep running those trucks into their golden years and overhaul the engines. It’s becoming less common, but we show you how on Pg. 16. And according to Jim Madich, engine service supervisor at Blaine Brothers, engine rebuilds could be needed anytime after 500,000. “Lately we’ve seen that a lot of trucks with aftertreatment systems are not lasting that long,” he said.
What is becoming more common is getting someone else to handle all the hassles.
As Jim Lager, EVP of sales and rental at Penske Truck Leasing pointed out, “The more complex and expensive equipment gets, the more fleet operators need a partner,” which is true and a good plug for leasing, or at least, contract maintenance.
“Diagnosing on today’s equipment is impossible to do if you don’t have the right equipment,” he added. And for all-makes fleets like DeFeo’s it’s even harder.
There are no definitive answers, but it’s never been more important to focus on maintenance, whether that’s in-house or outsourced.
“Uptime is paramount,” Lager asserted, though added, “A lot of fleets don’t even know how to calculate that. They don’t even really know what that is.”
With your current trucks not getting any younger, and new ones coming out not getting any cheaper, that should be a top priority in the next year so your business doesn’t also lose a step going forward.
