Guides
New vs used moving company equipment: when used wins
New vs used moving company equipment: which items are worth buying second-hand, which to buy new, and the compliance checks to run before you pay.
What to take away
- New vs used moving company equipment is not a purchase-price comparison. It is a question of availability, and availability is where used equipment usually loses.
- A truck out of service in peak season costs the crew-day, the job, and sometimes the account. The same repair in a quiet month costs the repair.
- Soft goods are the opposite casepads, dollies, and straps are cheap enough that buying used rarely pays and condition failures are immediate.
- Work the arithmetic below in your own numbers before deciding. Truck prices, repair rates, and rental costs are local and change constantly, so the variables stay in letters until you fill them in.
The variables
Write these down for the specific item you are comparing. The derivation is in letters until you fill them in.
Variables to fill in
- A: acquisition cost, net of trade
- N: years you expect to keep it
- R: resale value at end of N
- Mnmaintenance cost per year
- Dndays per year out of service
- Dpdowntime days in peak season
- U: crew-days sellable per year
- S: cost of covering a lost day
Symbol / Meaning
- A
- Acquisition cost, net of any trade or deposit · The quote you have in writing
- N
- Years you expect to keep it · Your own plan, not the finance term
- R
- Resale or residual value at the end of N · A dealer's estimate, in writing
- Mn
- Maintenance cost per year · Service history for used; a schedule for new
- Dn
- Days per year out of service · Service history, or a realistic allowance
- Dp
- How many of those days fall in peak season · Your calendar, not an average
- U
- Crew-days you would otherwise sell in a year · The dispatch calendar
- S
- Cost of covering a lost day: rental, subcontract, or the lost job · Your own quotes
The comparison
Annual ownership cost is the purchase less what you get back, spread over the years you keep it, plus what it costs to run:
Cost per available crew-day
- Annual cost = (A - R) / N + Mn
- Available days = U - Dn
- Cost per crew-day = Annual cost / (U - Dn)
- Tiebreaker when close: Dp
Annual cost = (A - R) / N + Mn
Available crew-days per year are what you planned to sell less what the vehicle takes away:
Available days = U - Dn
So the figure to compare across candidates is:
Cost per available crew-day = Annual cost / (U - Dn)
Two vehicles with very different prices often land close together on this measure, and when they do the tiebreaker is Dp rather than anything financial.
The peak-season term is what usually decides it
Downtime is not uniform. A day lost in February is a day you were unlikely to sell. A day lost on the last Saturday of July is a crew-day, a customer, and possibly a review. Add the penalty explicitly:
Cheaper on paper vs in season
Used truck
- Purchase price
- Lower
- Extra breakdown days
- Three
- Peak-season days lost
- Two
- Peak penalty
- Dp x S added
- True annual cost
- Often higher
New truck
- Purchase price
- Higher
- Extra breakdown days
- None
- Peak-season days lost
- Zero
- Peak penalty
- None
- True annual cost
- Often lower
Peak penalty = Dp x S
Add it to the annual cost before dividing. A used truck that is cheaper on paper and carries three extra breakdown days, two in season, is often the more expensive vehicle once the penalty is included.
Most people skip this step because Dp feels like a guess, but it is a guess about the number that matters. That beats precision about the number that does not.
Where used usually wins
- Trailers,which have few moving parts and a long life. A used dry van from a builder such as Wabash National or Great Dane is the least complicated second-hand purchase in the yard.
- Older trucks bought as a sparerather than as the primary vehicle, where downtime does not stop work. A used Isuzu NPR or Freightliner M2 box truck is the usual example.
- Warehouse racking and yard fittings,which do not break down in a way that costs a day.
- A first truck for a business that has not proved its volumes yet,where the real risk is buying too much truck rather than too old a truck.
Where used usually loses
- Straps, shoulder straps, and lifting equipment.These fail under load, and the failure is an injury or a damaged item. Buy new and retire them on condition.
- Pads,where used stock is often thin, stained, or damp, and appearance is part of what the customer is buying.
- Dollies and hand trucks,cheap enough new that a used saving is small against the annoyance of a seized wheel at a customer's door.
- The primary truck in a single-truck yard,where Dn is not a cost but an existential problem.
Where the used stock comes from
Used moving equipment usually reaches a buyer through one of four channels: a dealer who specializes in that class of truck, a commercial vehicle auction, an online marketplace listing from another carrier, or a direct sale from a mover retiring a fleet. Each channel changes what you can check before you pay. In practice that means a franchised or independent dealer for a make such as Freightliner, International, Hino, or Isuzu; an auction run by Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers, its IronPlanet online sales, or a local public surplus auction; a listing on Commercial Truck Trader, TruckPaper, or eBay Motors; or a call to a carrier you know is retiring a fleet.
The written estimate of what the unit will be worth at the end of the years you plan to keep it is R in the arithmetic below. It falls with age, mileage, and the condition of the box, ramp, or liftgate, so ask for it in writing from someone who sells that class of truck rather than from the seller. A direct sale from a retiring mover is often the best-documented option, because the maintenance file exists and the mileage is explained.
Two checks before any used purchase
The condition inspection. For a vehicle: service history, brakes, tires, ramp or liftgate operation, body and floor condition, corrosion at the load floor, and whether the body fittings you need are present or must be added. For equipment: load-bearing parts first, cosmetics never. The Moving Company Equipment Checklist for New Owners sets the condition rules each kit item has to pass, and they apply on the day you buy as much as on a Tuesday morning.
The compliance check. A vehicle's weight rating carries consequences for registration, markings, inspection, driver licensing, and hours, and buying used does not change any of them. Interstate operations mean a USDOT number, FMCSA registration kept current on Form MCS-150, a BOC-3 process-agent filing, and the household-goods rules in 49 CFR Part 375; the vehicle is also subject to the periodic federal inspection under 49 CFR Part 396. Driver licensing follows the vehicle's weight rating and the commercial license class it falls into. Confirm what applies with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration for interstate operations and with your state's transportation department or public utility commission otherwise. FMCSA's regulations and enforcement page identifies the framework covering interstate household-goods carriers, and the Moving Company Licensing and Compliance Guide explains how to work out which body governs your operation. An older vehicle can also fail an inspection regime that a newer one passes without attention, and that shows up in Dn.
Renting is the third option, and it belongs in the same arithmetic
Rental turns A into a per-day cost and shifts Dn to someone else. For a yard without proven volumes, or for the two or three weeks a year when demand tops the fleet, renting often beats new and used.
Compare it on the same measure: total rental spend divided by the crew-days it enables. Sizing comes first, and the Moving Company Equipment and Setup Guide works through which vehicle the streets in your territory allow.
What the decision does to the crew
Equipment condition affects training, safety, finances. Crews use what is on the truck, even a strap that should have been retired.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration's safety management guidance describes finding and fixing hazards before an injury or inspection does, so here that means a written retirement rule for load-bearing equipment and inspection at purchase, not at failure.
New crews are slower to spot a failing piece of gear, which is one reason a yard training its first crews leans newer. The Moving Company Hiring and Training Guide treats equipment as a training subject in its own right.
When the answer changes
Rerun the comparison when you add a second truck, because Dn on the first vehicle stops being fatal once a spare exists. Rerun it when you enter a second market: the Moving Company Expansion and Market Guide treats fleet duplication as a real cost of the move. A spare in one yard is not a spare in the other.
Rerun it after any season in which downtime cost you a job. That is real evidence about Dp.
The interstate case is separate. Household-goods work across state lines carries obligations described in FMCSA's Protect Your Move materials. A vehicle that cannot make a long trip reliably is a different proposition from one that only has to reach the far side of the metro.
Common questions
How many years should I assume for N?
However long you can honestly say you will keep it. Using the finance term instead flatters new equipment, and using an optimistic life flatters used.
What if I cannot get a service history?
Then Dn is unknown and you should assume the worse end of your range. A used vehicle with no history is being sold on trust, and trust is not a variable.
Is leasing the same as renting here?
No. A lease is closer to ownership: you carry the downtime. Put a lease into the same arithmetic with A as the deposit plus payments and R as zero.
Should the first truck ever be new?
It can be, when downtime would stop the business and the payments fit the slow months. That is a cash question rather than an equipment one.
