Originally appeared in Canadian Trucking Alliance

With historic inflation and supply chain constraints amid high freight demand still creating equipment acquisition concerns, Corcentric – a financial procurement and asset management services company – recommends stepping up fleet maintenance and casting a wider net for suppliers.

However, as used truck values soar, there’s some suggestion that the interest rate hikes will help to bring down costs, which have soared at a historic pace, CCJ magazine reports.

“That should help us correct a lot of this tremendous asset inflation,” Garcia said during an equipment and supply chain outlook panel at a recent Corcentric Fleet Solutions Conference in Charlotte, N.C.

Used truck prices in particular have had astronomical gains over the past year.

“It’s effectively double,” Dale Tower, vice president of used trucks at AmeriQuest, a Corcentric subsidiary, said during the panel. Used trailers prices “have pretty much tripled,” Tower continued.

When asked about supply chain impacts on new truck and trailer inventories for the remainder of this year and next, Corcentric vice president of capital equipment Sean Storey painted a similar picture offered by other industry forecasters.

“I think what you’re going to see is a repeat from this year to next. It’s not going to get much better,” Storey said. “Most of your OEMs are not running at capacity. They’re building as much as they can, but there are things hurting them with supply chain disruption.”

As high prices and equipment constraints continue, Garcia recommends stepping up fleet maintenance.

“The fact that you can’t replace [equipment] effectively, new vehicles aren’t being produced fast enough to replace your existing vehicles and the fact that there’s so much freight out there to move, you need these vehicles running,” Garcia continued. “You need that uptime so you really need to spend the money. The maintenance is so important on these vehicles. More important than ever.”

Shifting to a multi-supplier approach is also advised.

“Embrace multiple suppliers,” Garcia said. “It’s hard to commit to any one supplier anymore only for the fact that they just don’t have enough product. So you’re going to have to go to multiple suppliers. Talk to them. Talk to them about the needs that you have.”