Vanguard Trailer's president, Charlie Mudd, agrees with industry economists in repeating sales forecasts of 90,000 dry vans for 2011 and 120,000 for 2012.
He notes that the 45,000 vans that'll probably be sold this year seem so good not because that's a lot - it's not - but because last year's sales were so lousy.

At the National Truck Equipment Association's Business Forecast meeting last week in Dearborn, Mich., one forecaster said more freight-hauling trailers will be sold in the next couple of years because fleets are making money again and are catching up with vehicle replacements that they put off during the now slowly receding recession.

Says Mudd: "I believe the trailer market will outperform the pace of the general economic recovery over the next 12 months because of some necessary replacement purchasing that has been delayed for a couple years. Solid carriers who now see the market starting to improve are now placing orders for equipment at a faster pace than the economy would actually dictate."

Mudd makes this and other points in a Five-Questions Q&A article posted by Skybitz in their blog.