Trailer Flexibility Is Disappearing Faster Than Fleets Realize

For the past several years, many fleets have viewed trailer capacity as a lever they could pull as conditions changed—adding units when freight improved and returning them when demand softened. According to Ed Behnen, Senior Vice President of Sales at Premier Trailer Leasing, that flexibility is becoming far less available.

Behnen joined Malcolm Harris on What the Truck?!?. Since his last appearance, the market has moved. Asked about the state of the trailer leasing market, Behnen didn’t hedge. “I think we’ve already lost equipment flexibility,” Behnen said. The reasons, in his telling, stack on top of each other rather than acting in isolation.

A run of overlapping events since the spring has compressed trailer utilization in ways he argues the market hasn’t fully priced in. “If you take a look back over the last several months, we’ve had different dynamics that have put a lot of pressure on our market,” Behnen said.

“On the supply side, we’ve seen the flex from CDLs on the heels of the Montgomery Supreme Court ruling. Going back to April, May, we have inspection week, Prime Day, and the World Cup having 11 host cities overlapping with July 4th.”

According to Behnen, circumstances like these have had a huge impact on what the overall utilization looks like within the equipment leasing space, and Prime Day pull forward compounded with where spot rates have been.

“It’s given a lot of fleets the opportunity to test out what this new market looks like, with worries about what the opportunity cost looks like to bring equipment back,” Behnen said. The cumulative effect, Behnen says, is a market that’s tighter than the headline numbers suggest. That tightening backdrop raises a second, more operational problem.

While equipment is turning over quickly between fleets, keeping track of who actually has custody of a given trailer has become its own risk category. How are carriers and lessors solving for that kind of asset-visibility gap, particularly when equipment can quietly move from one lease to another?

“On the carrier side, doing diligence and getting your paperwork in order is vital,” Behnen said. “In a tighter market, credit crunch becomes a real component, in addition to trailer availability.

But from the technology side of things, you also have to be strategic about what your tech package looks like, and you need to know that you have a partner who is willing to work with you to help set up geofencing.” Premier, Behnen says, treats that visibility as an ongoing operational function rather than a one-time setup.

“We’re monitoring this in-house from day to day,” Behnen said. “We have hundreds, if not thousands, of tow yards that are already geofenced. We reach out to our customer base if any one of the assets becomes available or unavailable as part of that.”

The point, ultimately, is speed of information and the ability to understand where your equipment is at any time. When it comes to planning for the near future, many fleets are calculating whether it’s better to lean more on leasing or purchasing their equipment, especially trailers.

In Behnen’s view, this question is inseparable from what’s happening on the power unit side of the fleet. “Engine regulation and what that means for capex spend going on to the power side of the equation could consume a large portion of what the balance sheet cash looks like going into 2027,” Behnen said.

“Now is a good opportunity to test the market and not put your eggs into the most expensive peak that we’ve seen in quite some time on the trailer pricing side of things,” he said. His recommendation is to use leased capacity as a bridge rather than a permanent posture, at least until the picture on trailer pricing and truck capex settles.

“Get your utilization in place, and make sure that your contracts are in place,” Behnen said. “Premier and others can be used as a great gap to be able to leverage the assets and secure what those contracts and loads look like before you make a longer-term commitment to buy on that front,” he said.

What distinguishes a good leasing partner, versus one that’s simply inexpensive? Behnen argues that the two aren’t the same thing, and that fleets who chase the lowest sticker price often end up paying for it elsewhere. “The quality of equipment goes a long way, and stability does as well,” Behnen said.

“Having a partner that continues to reinvest into keeping your equipment fresh is key. In times like this, there have been a lot of cheaper options that have been available, and they usually come with drawbacks.” He tied equipment age directly to downstream maintenance cost. Transparency is part of the value proposition and not simply a courtesy.

“Knowing that you could have late-model equipment helps on the maintenance side of the equation,” Behnen said. “Taking it a step further, just knowing that you have a partner that’s responsive, that’s accountable with billing transparency, really helps put together a bigger equation for what the right p