Fleet Truck?

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GSTRUCKS

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Jun 10, 2010
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Checking to see what everyone's thoughts were on a solid fleet truck for van carrier? I realize everyone has their own opinion in this department, looking at the Pete 587 or Int'l Prostar has caught our eye as a start...

Thoughts on dealer network, serviceability etc...
 
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My humble opinion. We have 1 Pete 387 series...beautiful truck. But dealerships are not on every corner like International, Freightliner etc. And we find the parts in some cases are 3 times the price of replacing parts on a more common truck. Add that to the fact that Peterbilt dealers for some strange reason only seem to get special order parts from their Chicago distribution center once a week. So if your truck is down unless you are very, very handy and can fix a part yourself, the truck might just be down for several days! Still, we love the truck because it is so sharp, but when it's down, we have to call all over the place to find parts. Just one opinion, though!
 
Well we have only internationals. Dealer network is very vast and open late for service.

I hear pro-stars have a few issues but nothing major..(burns coolant, had a few electrical issues...etc)

I agree that most internationals are considered ''farm'' equipment, but ours are tough little trucks.....
 
We run Freightliners and Volvo's both are good, a lot comes down to your local dealer and who will give you the best service. We tried Peterbuilts and the Kenworths, both good trucks but parts and service where horrible at dealerships, I will say it was mostly engine troubles the trucks themselves where fine but we cannot afford to have a truck down for a week at a time. We basically got rid of them after 2 years because of the down time.
 
I echo everyone else. It boils down to the dealership. In the London area, nobody beats Peterbilt.
If truck sales are brisk, Freightliner/Star will have no parts availability.
International, if you work on your own trucks, are the least mechanic friendly, and their option packages at purchase are kinda weird.
If i was buying new today, i would consider Pete probably, then KW, I hear the new DAF/MX engine is getting phenomenal fuel economy, but the purchase price is prob the highest. (Then again, best residuals too)
 
Dave in London said:
I echo everyone else. It boils down to the dealership. In the London area, nobody beats Peterbilt.
If truck sales are brisk, Freightliner/Star will have no parts availability.
International, if you work on your own trucks, are the least mechanic friendly, and their option packages at purchase are kinda weird.
If i was buying new today, i would consider Pete probably, then KW, I hear the new DAF/MX engine is getting phenomenal fuel economy, but the purchase price is prob the highest. (Then again, best residuals too)
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We do most of our service and I find Inters are not that bad....when I had my trucks I had Macks....now those are a b..ch to work on......but no truck was tougher then those Macks I tells you....
 
I agree... It's dealer support that tips the scales for us.

Granted there are other factors... price, re-sale value, reliability, driver preference, curb appeal etc.

Our last few have been Kenworths and we're pleased. Haven't had much experience with the service centre's because they just don't seem to be in the shop (other than regular maintenance). Freightliners Mississauga branch is the reason that we will not purchase another Freightliner. It's the worst repair facility I've ever had to deal with. Took a month to replace a turbo (warranty) on a 2 month old truck.

A lot of fleets that have eastern European drivers tend to lean towards Volvo's because the drivers prefer them. You do need to consider driver input on this. It's tough to send a driver 2000 miles away from home and for a few weeks at a time in a truck they hate and expect them to preform.

There is no right answer to this... there are many factors to consider. What's right for you may not be right for me etc.

Asking opinions from others is a pretty good place to start though.

Good luck in your choice.
 
lol. Agreed on the Mack thing.
My issue with Intl (maybe prostars are different). Hood and mudflap get in the way of everything becasue the hood doesnt tilt far enough. Clutch and trans can't come out without cross members and air tanks being removed, and they never used to have central point greasing. Outside of that, a truck is a truck pretty much anymore.
 
Dave in London said:
lol. Agreed on the Mack thing.
My issue with Intl (maybe prostars are different). Hood and mudflap get in the way of everything becasue the hood doesnt tilt far enough. Clutch and trans can't come out without cross members and air tanks being removed, and they never used to have central point greasing. Outside of that, a truck is a truck pretty much anymore.
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True...They do need a bit more stuff removed than others...poor engineering I guess. We usually take the hood right off (10 minutes) for major work....saves my guy a lot of bumps and scrapes....and those french swear words not heard anymore....(or so little) :P
 
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Fleet truck

I run a very small fleet and and here is my opinion:

One Peterbilt 379 with over 3.5 million KM that goes to Florida weekly. Bought used in 2002, never touched the engine.
Never been broke down in the USA for longer than 6 hours.
Always find parts required by calling dealers in our corridor, if one does not have it , the next one will. You know what parts are susceptible to wear and carry spares.
You can get a service appt. quickly ( less trucks on the road).

Pete 379 , basically same truck for last 30 years, most problems have been rectified. Dealers know truck well, can diagnose most problems over the phone.
Very easy to work on - lots of space around engine bay, where most of your maintenance will occur.
Best truck on the road!!! Why many US Owner ops buy them. Some drivers do not like the limited space.

We have a few Freightliner Columbia's with Mercedes engines. Bought new . Will never buy new again.
Trucks are pretty solid, little repairs other than engine. Lots of problems when they came out , but now mostly resolved, lots of warranty work done on engines with associated down time.
Hard to beat on fuel economy all up around 9mpg CDN. , all over 1.8 million km.

Problem : Nasty Canadian dealerships. I have caught them not changing the oil when brought in for an oil change. Only trustworthy dealer is in Cornwall, very helpful. We will not repair in MTL. will take to Cornwall.
IN the USA , TOO many trucks on the road, when you break down so have another 50 trucks. Dealerships are over taxed, you can wait 2 days just to see a mechanic. Prime, Schneider and Swift all get to go before you. Can get parts quickly but will probably bee wrong parts!!! Pretty incompetent mechanics especially at T/A affiliates.

International, still agricultural Equipment in my mind, but they do look sharp.

Volvo: Carry and electrical engineer on board to fix electrical problems , that the dealerships cannot figure out. Hard to service , engine is shoehorned in. Give truck away when finished.
Mack is good but who wants to drive one. Seems to be lots in Upper Canada, maybe good dealership.

Next purchase : Used Kenworth 660. Expecting same dealer satisfaction as with Pete. Should get good fuel mileage because of shape. Good engineering.

Secret to Success:
Good drivers that actually inspect truck and trailer and advise of issues before they become problems.
Regular maintenance , and using one gallon of LUCAS Oil additive in each oil change.

When you are small you do not want the truck to break down at all. You cannot afford to sit at dealers!!!
Mr Schneider can still survive if two of his 15,000 tractors break down. We cannot!!!
 
A think part of it is culture.

Some owner-ops especially (may I add French Canadians especially) like the Pete 379s and Kenworth T800s I think they're called. But thier gas mileage has always been below par because they're a brick in the air.

Eastern Europeans tend to prefer the Volvos and Freightshakers with condo bunks, and they tend to get the best MPGs but will prefer to not get a Volvo or M-B engine in them if they can get away with it.

Our fleet consists mostly of Freightliner Columbia's and Peterbilt 387s, spec'd for high gas mileage and low weight. We turn them every 3-4 years so a lot of the mechanical gremlins (ie engine) don't come up in that time frame.

The ones I really don't like are actually the Stars and Macks ... but they're not really marketed as long-haul trucks anymore.
 
You can drive the living crap out of a Peterbilt and they will keep going as long as you keep up with maintenance.

Volvos are nice if you want to give your drivers a great condominium on wheels but do yourself a favour and DO NOT buy one that requires DEF. It's a pain in the hiney because we had a guy limp home from Volvo dealership to Volvo dealership between Indiana and Ontario and not one of them could diagnose a problem with the truck. Turns out it had something to do with this blessed diesel exhaust fluid system. If you contaminate that stuff in any way, you're screwed. The after sales service by Volvo (it was a brand new truck) left some to be desired.

Kenworths are called K-wobblers for a reason. Nuff said.

Freightliner is no worse and no better than Volvo in my opinion. Nice trucks. They seem to have electrical issues if I remember right.

International seems to be truck of choice for a lot of corporate fleets that I see on the road so that should say something.

And Mack is great. Everyone knows why they put a bulldog on the hood of a Mack truck the way they did.
 
noproblembuddy said:
You can drive the living crap out of a Peterbilt and they will keep going as long as you keep up with maintenance.
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Met with the owner of an amazing carrier operation this morning we've worked with for years. He was showing me one of the older trucks in his fleet (approx 10 - 11 years old) now only used for local work (ON-PQ). Previously used for ON-CA (team service always) it had nearly 4 million kilometers on it. It's like it must have stopped only to load, offload and get maintenance.

It was a Pete (of course).

He did mention that the bulk of his fleet were Petes and he's been happy with the brand for a long time (so have his drivers).

Note - the truck still looked brand new.

Keep well,

Mike
 
Alx, don't expect same dealer satisfaction with KW as Pete (at least in SW Ontario). I got caught with my pants down with an annual expiring on a Friday night. Only place that had room was KW (its a T600 so it fit). Well, there was a reason every dealership was busting at the seams 'cept KW.
I told them fix what needed fixing because I knew the truck condition, and I didn't have time to waste. To my surprise, truck needed brakes and drums all round. 1600.00 , total bill 3000.00. I picked up the truck Saturday and stroked out. Sister truck, identical condition cost 225.00 at another place the following month.
And yes I argued, and no, I didn't win. I will tow my truck to Nunavut before darkening KW's shop door in London again.
As far as parts around here, expect 8-10% higher prices at KW than Pete.
3 of mine are KW, and I order every part that I can from Pete or a jobber. I only get parts at KW when there is absolutely no other way to get it. For example, 1400.00 for suspension beam (4 bag) because you cannot buy the bushing separately (serious!) and its proprietary part, slightly different from the Pete Airglide. Ordered aftermarket bushing through alignment shop, 72.00, pressed it in myself.
I prefer the KW truck over the Pete, but...dealer, dealer, dealer!
 
I used to buy only Freightliner (Columbia) but a bad experience last winter turned me right off. We had a truck that wouldn't start and throwing a code up on the dash. Turned over good but not firing. I called 3 different Freightliner dealers and they couldn't tell me what the code was. Each one of them said 'bring it here'. None of the dealers have mobile mechanincs. They wouldn't make an exception to bring someone out 30 miles to tell me what the code was on their computer.

Well 4 days later, after trying a bunch of other mechanics who checked everything they can think of mechanically, they gave up. There really was no reason why it wouldn't start. It wouldn't run on ether either.
I gave in and towed it to Freightliner to the tune of 450.00. While it was still on the hook, the mechanic came out with the laptop, cleared the code and it started. He couldn't tell me the code, it wasn't in the history - he just cleared all codes and now it starts.

You can just imagine how frustrated I was because he billed me for a half hour of his time and I drove out behind the tow truck!!!

I went to Peterbilt because there is a Peterbilt dealership in our town and they have a mobile unit. They promised me that they would definitely come to our yard with the laptop if a similar situation occured.

I have bought 3 new 2012 - Peterbilt 386's in November spec'ed the way I wanted them. I am very happy I made the change and so are the drivers. So far so good, only two minor issues with them but no down time. No issues with DEF or Regen's, no stupid alarms or codes that keep popping up. Fuel consumption is comparable to the Mercedes/Columbia. An all around great decision.

Too bad Freightliner didn't look forward to see that a 30 mile drive with their laptop to start a truck would have saved them a good customer. Maybe it was the fact that I called Peterbilt and someone came out right away and worked on it outside in the cold for 4 hours trying everything he could to get it started. It could also be that I bought a used Cascadia and spent oodles of money fixing the stupid regen unit. It still causes problems and requires a regen at least once a week. We have had to tow that truck too many times to the dealer only to have them hook up their laptop just to get the regen to work.

The Petes are only 4 months old and time will tell but right now I'm happy with the change.
 
Jim L said:
I used to buy only Freightliner (Columbia) but a bad experience last winter turned me right off. We had a truck that wouldn't start and throwing a code up on the dash. Turned over good but not firing. I called 3 different Freightliner dealers and they couldn't tell me what the code was. Each one of them said 'bring it here'. None of the dealers have mobile mechanincs. They wouldn't make an exception to bring someone out 30 miles to tell me what the code was on their computer.
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That was an experience I had way back in 1996. We had an o/o with a new Freightliner Columbia and it didn't start in the winter because of some electrical defects. It was always in the shop. Beautiful truck though.
 
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Thanks Dave

Hey your scaring me this morning!!

We are just in the process of buying a used T660 , maybe we should stop.
I have only heard good things about the Montreal Kenworth dealership. I will look into it further.
Thankfully we have a great suspension shop 1/4 mile away. He just changed that whole funny air ride front suspension on our 2004 Columbia, the King pins needed re doing, so he just put in a used - re manufactured axle. All for under $1400.00.

As for Jim ,
We have been playing with codes in the Columbia's for years.
There are two simple culprits for letting the engine turn over but not fire.
The 1st is the Low coolant sensor at the bottom of the coolant reservoir, if it is low the engine will not start. The 2nd is low oil if you are 2 gallons low the same thing will happen.
 
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We actually lease (full maintenance) over half of our fleet and although when you look at the cost per mile between owned and leased you will always be better on the owned but what we are finding is that if the leased unit breaks down you have a replacement towed to you at no cost and you are back up and running, if it is one of our own you usually do not replace the truck with a rental so you are out revenue for however long it is broken down and if you are not close to home you pay the driver and hotel room. So I guess what I'm saying is we are trending more towards leasing, it does cost a little more but just about every delivery we make is an appointment so we have to go.
 
Hi,

We are on full maintenace lease programs with Penske. Yes we pay a little more, but it's also a piece of mind knowing that your maintenance is being monitored, therefore less cost in house. And like "lowmiler88" said, replacement trucks are covered, towing costs covered, and, if your audited files are in top notch order....
 
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