Despite news that the market may be slowly starting to turn around, fleets are even more soft on buying equipment in the first quarter of 2010, with CK Commercial Vehicle Research's FSR Equipment Buying Index dropping 21 percent

from the fourth quarter. Taken from questionnaires by about 60 fleet managers, the index showed a reading of 54.5 for the first quarter, which is calculated based on a 100 reading.

"We actually expected a major decline because the information we received from fleets in previous quarters about their plans for their next equipment orders looked to be very soft for the first half of 2010," the report said.

Only 28 percent of respondents said they planned to place orders for power units in the next three months, a 33.5 percent drop from the four-quarter moving average. This drop was expected because of fleets hurrying to take advantage of 2009 built slots at the end of 2009, the report said.

"Those build slots enabled fleets that had funds to upgrade to new equipment without moving to the more expensive and unknown 2010 technology," the report said. "Now there are not a lot of fleet buyers in the market."

The number of fleets who expect to buy new trailers was similarly low, at 25 percent.

The index is a simple measure of planned buying behavior of for-hire, private and government fleets over the next three months. A lower reading indicates that fewer fleets are planning to purchase equipment while a higher reading indicates that more are planning to purchase equipment.

CKCVR regularly polls a group of fleet operators about their equipment purchasing and maintenance practices.