PacLease Celebrates 30 Years in Truck Leasing

Paccar Leasing is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. Since 1980, the company has grown from 17 locations to more than 400 locations in the U.S. Canada, Mexico and Germany today.

PacLease's customer fleet includes over 30,000 vehicles around the world.

"PacLease was founded on the idea that companies should concentrate on their core business and leave the financing and management of trucks to a company that specializes in spec'ing and maintaining them," said Bob Southern, PacLease president.

When PacLease began its full-service leasing business 30 years ago, deregulation in the trucking industry allowed many new carriers to enter the transportation business.

"The increased competition drove down rates to levels attractive to private companies, but it also eroded service levels," Southern said. "That led many private companies to consider running their own trucking operations.

"Thirty years later, companies face new challenges with their private fleets," he said. "They must adopt new truck technologies, meet stricter state and federal emission regulations and deal with fluctuating fuel prices driven by changing global supply and demand."

As a result of global demand, PacLease entered the Mexican full-service leasing market in April of 1996 and acquired a German truck leasing company 11 years later.

The company also attributes growth to the help of dealers, such as Peterbilt of Wisconsin, which joined the PacLease system on Dec. 17, 1980, with one location. The leasing division, JX PacLease, now has 12 locations in Illinois and Wisconsin. Palmer Leasing joined the PacLease system on May 27, 1981, with six rental trucks in two locations, Kenworth of Indianapolis and Kenworth of Cincinnati. Palmer now has eight locations.

"Offering full-service leasing was a response to a need among our customers," said Larry Price, director of operations for Palmer Leasing. "We found that they wanted delivery control of their products. But they didn't want the hassle of dealing with their own maintenance facility and all of the administrative tasks that accompany a trucking operation, such as fuel tax reporting."