Indianapolis-headquartered Palmer Trucks moved a dealership about a mile closer to a key set of interstates.
The third-generation family business relocated its Kenworth of Fremont business to 6503 Old U.S. 27, next to an interchange of I-69 and I-80/90, the company announced last week.
“There's a lot of trucks that move down that corridor, and we're just happy to serve them even better now,” Co-President and Chief Human Resources Officer Jacob Nichols told Trucking Dive in an interview Monday.
The business has 12 full-service dealerships, four parts and services locations and multiple lease and rental divisions, mostly concentrated in the Midwest.
The business was founded in 1965 by Eldon Palmer, Nichols’ grandfather, and the company’s operations have moved to different locations over the years. The recent move aimed to benefit from increased throughput.
Changes to an existing location depend on the real estate market, and Palmer Trucks is leasing the property, which features drive-through bays, an expanded service shop, mobile diagnostics and repairs, and aftermarket parts.
“Having parts on hand with increased service bay capacity maximizes truck uptime for local and transient customers along I-69 and the Indiana Toll Road,” General Manager JD Miller said in a news release.
The shift comes as an total vacancy rate in the Indianapolis area increased to 9.3% year over year, according to an industrial report by real estate services firm JLL. That’s significantly higher than the national rate of 4.9% for vacancy and an average asking rate increasing 15.3% year over year, per a Q3 JLL report.
Carriers meanwhile have been looking at different strategies amid a slowdown in demand. Nichols said those strategies include longer trade cycles, refurbishing and new equipment.
Despite difficulties in the market, carriers have been able to cycle out equipment. The average truck age reached a peak of 5.7 years in 2021 before dropping to 4.7 years in 2022, according to the American Transportation Research Institute. But many smaller carriers avoided new equipment costs due to higher prices, ATRI said in its 2023 costs of trucking report.
Despite fluctuations in demand, Palmer Trucks sees its efforts in a broader perspective. “This business is a long term business,” Nichols said. “And we're going to invest in that.”
