Xtra Lease invests $300 million to buy 10,000 new trailers

Xtra Lease announced it will invest more than $300 million to buy more than 10,000 trailers in 2019, the company’s largest capital investment in over-the-road trailers in a single year.

The St. Louis, Missouri-based provider of rental and lease trailers said it will buy new dry vans, refrigerated trailers (“reefers”), flatbed and chassis, boosting its fleet to around 85,000 trailers.

The new van and reefer trailers will be equipped with fuel-saving side skirts, air disc brakes and trailer tracking, which is free on all rental and leases, Xtra Lease said in a release. All new van trailers will include a free cargo sensor.

“We invest in new trailers every year to provide the youngest, most reliable fleet of rental trailers in the market,” said Bill Franz, president and chief executive of Xtra Lease, which is owned by Berkshire Hathaway.

This purchase will lower the average age of Xtra’s dry van fleet to 5.6 years and drop the age of its flatbed trailers to 4.9 years, Franz said.

“Our goal is to ensure that fleets have access to quality trailers that they can count on to perform well with low maintenance,” Franz said.

Besides its investment in 53-and 48-foot dry vans, Xtra will add 1,400 new flatbed trailers this year. This is its largest investment in flatbed trailers in several years, the company said.

New trailers are available at Xtra Lease branches now and will continue to arrive throughout the year, according to Xtra.