NEW YORK — Smaller carriers who weren’t planning to buy more expensive ’07 trucks are reconsidering adding new equipment to their fleet after having attractive incentives proposed to them, according to New York-based transportation analysts at Bear Stearns.

The firm says it spoke to one small-medium truck buyer who planned to sit on existing equipment for a while longer until a truck dealer “came knocking on his door” with a “very attractive incentive package.” The terms were so tempting, says the fleet owner, that he now has 20 new heavy trucks (fourteen with the new 2007-compliant engines and six with 2006 engines) in his fleet.

The contact said that he didn’t have much trepidation at buying the 2007 engines because he knew that while the engines would get slightly worse fuel economy, the trucks they were replacing were older (some pre-2002) and “weren’t getting good fuel economy anyway.” The buyer added he’s generally been pleased with the new engines, but he has experienced increased maintenance issues with other parts of the truck, such as the ignition systems, batteries, air conditioning, suspensions.

Looking ahead to 2010, the source told Bear Stearns that he still hasn’t thought much about the exact quantity of trucks he plans to pre-buy, but he does plan on purchasing a few trucks in advance of the deadline for tough new emission standards.

However, given the current freight environment in the U.S., he doesn’t see a need to begin pre-buying further than a year ahead of the emissions standard.

“Specifically, from his perspective the cost of actually adding a truck to a fleet (excluding the initial purchase prices) continues to rise (i.e., insurance, driver training if new technology, maintenance training, licenses etc). As a result, our contact said that for a small fleet like him any incremental increase in the price of a new truck is meaningful.”