Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/963441
38 | Overdrive | April 2018 BUYERS WELCOME more than long-haul operation. Those indeed are factors to consider in used-truck evaluation, suggests Daily. "Where we see customers running into issues is in either vocational applications … where you're on the jobsite a lot," he says, or consistently in and around "delivery locations in large cities" with multiple stops. Howard owns a 2009 Volvo that he says hasn't given him a single problem. "We changed out the [diesel particulate] filter at 850,000 miles," he says, "which doesn't qualify as a complaint" as he sees it. With his '16 and '17 ProStars, he plans to remove and ash-clean the DPFs between 250,000 and 300,000 miles. NEW: Trucking under warranty until retirement Leased to Georgia-based Bennett Motor Express, owner-operator Jerry Boyd of Spencer, Tennessee, has been ponder- ing a purchase from the same dealer as small-fleet owner Howard. Sales rep- resentative Corey Price of Landmark International says both operators are part of an influx of prospective buyers as sales activity has been "wide open … the last two to three months." The improved economy has spurred a lot of it, Price says, in addition to tax changes that present a windfall to fleets. Changes to the rules around expensing equipment haven't hurt matters, particu- larly for small fleets and owner-ops look- ing for short-term savings. Boyd, who's been leased to Bennett almost 20 years and has been trucking 35 years, is in a 2016 ProStar that pulls a step deck. He bought it new a few years ago but is laying plans to trade one more time and finish his career. Boyd, 60, says if he can "get a truck with a five-year warranty on it, I can quit at 66." Boyd says he was among the owner- operators who wanted nothing to do with post-2007 emissions equipment before investing in his ProStar. His prior truck was a 2000 International that he put 1.8 million miles under, but as it turns out, the 2016 has "been totally trouble-free" 356,000 miles in. "I've never had to do a parked regen" to clear soot from the DPF, he says. "I've got no complaints." With a new International LT he's considering, he appreciates the security of the five-year 500,000-mile warranty in addition to the ability to avoid "hav- ing to go home for the weekend and work on the truck" during his time off, he says. Boyd purchased the 2016 ProStar for around $120,000, with $15,000 down in addition to the $10,000 he got for the trade on his 2000 International. Like other operators quoted in this story, he financed it with a loan from his local bank, his at 5 percent on a four-year term, very good for a new-truck loan. Boyd's got around $30,000 in equity now to put toward a trade for a new truck. He believes he could pay the rig off well under warranty and call it all a day. Having factory-extended warranties was a big factor in Salvador Solis' decision to buy a new Peterbilt 389. Jerry Boyd (right), with Landmark International rep Corey Price and Boyd's 2016 ProStar, leased to Bennett Motor Express. Boyd's on the verge of trading the ProStar for a new truck to close his trucking career under a five-year 500,000-mile warranty.