Principle Investigator: Kenneth Kurani
Project Funder: The California Air Resources Board
This study solicits information directly from decision-makers in private businesses operating fleets of medium- and heavy-duty trucks in California. Decision-makers describe what determines why they acquire and retire trucks and how they use those determinants. The purpose is to better understand truck turnover in the trucking sector. Direct contact with fleet decision-makers was preceded by a review of relevant literature. This review helped to design a joint questionnaire and interview completed by each participant. Results are presented as 1) a set of determinants (internal to each fleet, external, and linking internal to external), 2) a typology based on decision-making structure, adaptation, and complexity, 3) case studies of decision-making types, 4) generalizations across fleets, and 5) extension to fleet consideration of alternative fuel trucks.
Two overarching conclusions are drawn: fleet truck turnover behavior is widely divergent, and while some fleet’s decision-making conforms to common analysis of fleet behavior, i.e., total cost of ownership, many more do not. This report describes the varied ways fleets acquire and retire trucks, extends this to understand how this variety is already affecting freight fleets’ consideration of alternative fuel trucks, and poses questions as to how understanding this variety aids in the promotion of zero-emission trucks.