For the past several years, many fleets have treated trailer capacity as a lever they could pull whenever conditions shifted — adding units when freight volumes improved and handing them back when demand softened. According to Ed Behnen, Senior Vice President of Sales at Premier Trailer Leasing, one of the largest trailer leasing companies in North America, that kind of flexibility is rapidly disappearing from the market.

Behnen joined Malcolm Harris on FreightWaves' What the Truck?!? to discuss the state of the trailer leasing market. Since his previous appearance on the program, market conditions have moved considerably, and when asked where things stand today, Behnen did not hedge.

"I think we've already lost equipment flexibility," Behnen said.

In his telling, the reasons stack on top of one another rather than operating in isolation. A series of overlapping events since spring has compressed trailer utilization in ways he argues the market has not 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 overall utilization within the equipment leasing space, and the pull-forward effect of Prime Day 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, he says, is a market that is tighter than headline numbers suggest.

Asset visibility becomes its own risk category

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 a risk category in its own right. The question is how carriers and lessors are solving that 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 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 know where your equipment is at any time.

Lease or buy: the capex question heading into 2027

When it comes to near-term planning, many fleets are weighing whether to lean more heavily on leasing or on purchasing their equipment, especially trailers. In Behnen's view, that question cannot be separated from what is 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."

That regulatory pressure has a concrete reference point: the EPA's 2027 low-NOx rule, which takes effect for model year 2027 engines, requires significant reductions in nitrogen oxide emissions and is expected to raise the cost and complexity of new power units — a factor carriers must weigh as they budget for equipment purchases.

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."

What separates a good leasing partner from a cheap one

What distinguishes a good leasing partner from one that is simply inexpensive? Behnen argues the two are not the same thing, and that fleets chasing 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, and said transparency is part of the value proposition rather than 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 partner looks like."

Fleet owners who already know they will need additional trailers in the next six to twelve months should be getting ahead of lead time and paperwork right now, according to Behnen, with both peak season and bid season bearing down.

"With back to school, college football and fantasy football drafts already in the rearview, peak season's here," Behnen said. "Take the time to meet with various different partners, understand what their value proposition looks like, understand what trailer availability looks like into next year, and get a lot of the nuisance administration out of the way."

For fleets expecting to bid or take on new contracts in the first quarter, the equipment itself is only half the equation.

"Make sure that you have not only the access to that equipment, but also that the credit side of the house is buttoned up," Behnen said. "That way, you can be sure that from an execution risk standpoint, there's nothing to worry about when the time comes to take on a new project."

Beyond the headline rate

In an earlier episode of What the Truck?!?, Behnen joined Harris to break down the hidden variables in trailer leasing agreements, the growing sophistication of equipment-related fraud, and the technology infrastructure carriers need to keep tabs on assets scattered across the country.

Trailer leasing decisions often come down to the monthly rate. But according to Behnen, that number tells only a fraction of the story, and carriers who focus on it exclusively may be setting themselves up for costly surprises down the road.

"When you take a look at what the monthly rate is, that's only one component of what the total expense line looks like for a piece of equipment," Behnen said. "When you take ownership of an asset, the spec, model year, and the condition — all of those factors play such a pivotal role in what your application and the performance of that trailer looks like."

From there, Behnen laid out a list of factors that rarely make it into a headline rate but can dramatically shift the real cost of a lease, starting with logistics.

"There's delivery and pickup location," he said. "What does that look like for your drivers or overall expense if they're getting drop shipped in? Maintenance. Is that included?"

Maintenance terms, Behnen noted, deserve particular scrutiny, since coverage varies widely between providers and agreement types.

"Is there a net agreement in place where there have to be conversations about what's covered? How is roadside support or any breakdown support handled from that standpoint?" he asked.

Even the end of a lease term carries cost implications that carriers sometimes overlook, according to Behnen.

"When it's time to turn the equipment in, where does it go? Do you have to bring it back to the location that it was picked up in? What happens if your application, your business changes and those assets are now being used in different locations?" he said. "All those plays such a pivotal role in what that total cost looks like, and it's so hard to just capture that on one line."

Network flexibility and the low-rate trap

Cost structure is one part of the equation, but network flexibility can also be a defining advantage for carriers working with a national trailer leasing provider. Many carriers experience freight demand shifts regionally or seasonally, and trailer network flexibility can be a relevant concern more often than some companies may have accounted for.

"Having a nationwide presence that can help support the broad network gives carriers real options," Behnen said. "The ability to pool assets from multiple branch locations to drop ship directly from an OEM can really help scale up when you need, but also in times to scale down, being able to pivot and find those areas of demand where things are hotter for a carrier or when they're not, so you can flex down a little bit easier."

Many carriers, according to Behnen, fall into the "low rate trap" without always being aware of hidden inclusions or exclusions.

"Carriers need to understand not just what's included within a rental or a lease agreement, but also what's not included," Behnen said, circling back to maintenance as the most common blind spot.

Behnen explained that maintenance responsibility historically falls into one of two buckets, but that the real value comes from customization. Premier Trailer Leasing, he said, offers an a la carte custom solution for its end users.

Carriers with their own in-house maintenance operations are not excluded from that value either; they simply need a different kind of support.

"Knowing that you have the support where you can leverage what mechanics or vendors that we have in multiple locations can really enhance a program that's already in place, especially for carriers that have fixed mechanics or their own shops already in place, but might not be nationwide in coverage," Behnen said.

Telematics strategy, not just a dot on a map

One of the more persistent headaches in trailer management is simply knowing where equipment is at any given moment.

"Trailers have really evolved from more of just the box on wheels to a total tech package," Behnen said. "You really need to understand what goes into that equipment. When you talk GPS, how is a carrier using that asset? Is it just the dot on a map?"

For Behnen, the answer lies in building a genuine telematics strategy rather than treating GPS as an afterthought.

"Do you have the infrastructure in place to really have a strategy around what telematics in general looks like?" he asked. "Because as we talk about dropping hooks and four-to-one trailer to truck ratios, it's really easy for equipment to be at a location comingled with other assets and lose sight of it."

That is where a leasing partner can step in as more than a vendor.

"Having a partner that walks through that strategy is part of the onboarding process," Behnen said. "Not only just going through invoicing, but understanding what infrastructure is in place and who manages equipment location. Is it somebody within dispatch, or is there another team? A trusted partner can help walk you through that, set up geofences, and help set up alerts that notify you when equipment goes in and out of different locations."

Behnen also highlighted idle and latency reporting as an early warning system for fleets.

"Idle or latency reports, where if a trailer hasn't moved in quite some time, help to tell a story about how your fleet's operating," he said. "That can be a really good bread crumb trail for you to understand that there's a piece of equipment that's gotten outside of its normal application."

Fraud, theft and 'ghost websites'

Freight fraud and theft are becoming more sophisticated and more prevalent by the day. Behnen said the pressure is very real on the equipment side as well, and that trusted partnerships are becoming increasingly vital.

"So much comes down to what your trailer provider is willing to invest in discovery to understand your operation and understand where your equipment is actually going," Behnen said.

Premier has built internal systems to respond quickly when something looks off.

"We call it concierge service," Behnen said. "When you roll out that onboarding package, you know exactly who to talk to when things go awry, and you know you can get a human twenty-four-seven on the phone to help quantify the issues you're having and locate where the trailers are. We lean into our GPS sites within our client dashboards and help you understand where the asset is. It paints a nice picture of what's going on."

The stakes can go beyond the cost of a missing trailer.

"On top of the freight, unfortunately if the equipment gets into the hands of the wrong end user with everything we've seen from nuclear verdicts, the last thing you want is some sort of accident or litigation to be compounded to the problem," Behnen said.

Perhaps most alarming is a new breed of scam targeting smaller carriers directly: fraudulent actors posing as legitimate leasing companies altogether, what Behnen calls "ghost websites."

The victims, Behnen explained, are often smaller operators without the experience to spot the warning signs.

"You have smaller carriers or owner operators that legitimately think that they're dealing with a seasoned leasing provider," he said. "The reality is that there are a lot of spotters out there, and these small carriers or owner operators are told to go to a facility and just pick out any trailer out of a bunch. There's no human interaction."

Payment red flags often follow the same pattern, according to Behnen.

"There's a lack of commercial credit and commercial payment now," he said. "There's a lot of red flags that are out there, but again, equipment is getting a lot tighter to get your hands on today."

That tightening supply, Behnen said, is pushing some carriers toward risky alternatives, leaving many owner operators exposed to fraud.

Asked to leave listeners with practical takeaways, Behnen circled back to fundamentals: a strong maintenance program paired with compliance support.

"Having a solid maintenance program that also tackles compliance is key, and knowing you have partners who can help on that front makes a real difference," he said, pointing to a prior collaboration covering trailer-related scams as an example of the kind of education carriers need to protect themselves.

Source: FreightWaves, "Trailer Flexibility Is Disappearing Faster Than Fleets Realize" (https://www.freightwaves.com/news/trailer-flexibility-is-disappearing-faster-than-fleets-realize)