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Fleet director: truck replacement slipping toward 10-year cycle amid upfitter bottlenecks and rising costs
Summary
The Century Garage fleet director told the Senate Transportation committee the fleet has 255 dump trucks, with 97 already eight years or older; he said supply-chain delays, a vendor upfitting bottleneck and rising prices mean the program is falling behind an eight-year replacement goal and faces a roughly $5.3 million shortfall to restore an optimal pace.
Dave Gerber, director of the Century Garage Fleet, told the Senate Transportation committee the state's vehicle replacement program is behind schedule and faces supply-chain and upfitting constraints that extend lead times and raise costs.
"We have 255 in the fleet... There's 97 that are eight years and over," Gerber said, summarizing the age profile for dump trucks and warning that 29 more units will turn eight in the next 12 months.
Gerber said to maintain an eight-year replacement cadence the agency would need to replace about 32 dump trucks per year; recent years have averaged nearer to 27–29 replacements. To recover, the agency has a multiyear purchase plan that includes 15 trucks ordered for FY26 and additional chassis purchases planned across FY26–27, but he said there remains a budget shortfall of roughly $5.3 million to reach the ideal replacement pace.
Committee members flagged the long lead times and a bottleneck at upfit vendors; Gerber said some chassis have sat in the agency yard for up to a year waiting for upfitting. He described modest annual price increases from vendors (2–6% in recent cycles) and said a broader market concentration among large upfitters and dealers limits competition.
Gerber walked committee members through warranty and in-service accounting: the agency begins depreciation and warranty when a truck is placed into service, not when the chassis is delivered, which preserves warranty coverage if chassis are held while awaiting upfit work.
He said the fleet is also evaluating whether some life-cycle targets (for example, light-duty pickup replacement at five years) should be adjusted to account for real-world procurement and in-service patterns.
Gerber offered to work with vendors and suggested the agency could explore ways to encourage more local upfit capacity to reduce wait times and support regional businesses. He said the planned purchases should reduce the backlog but that the agency must manage rising prices and limited vendor capacity going forward.
The committee thanked staff and asked for follow-up details about the FY27 spending plan and the status of trucks currently awaiting upfit.
