BELLEVUE, Wash. — Paccar Leasing (PacLease) is celebrating 30 years serving the transportation industry.

A recent company celebration recognized the company’s growth from 17 locations in 1980 to more than 400 locations in Canada, the US, Mexico and Germany. Over the same time period, PacLease’s customer fleet has grown to more than 30,000 vehicles around the world, according to company officials.

“PacLease was founded on the idea that companies should concentrate on their core business and leave the financing and management of trucks to a company that specializes in spec’ing and maintaining them,” said Bob Southern, president of PacLease.

Southern notes that when PacLease began its full-service leasing business 30 years ago, deregulation in the trucking industry allowed many new carriers to enter the transportation business.

“The increased competition drove down rates to levels attractive to private companies, but it also eroded service levels,” he said. “That led many private companies to consider running their own trucking operations. But they needed expert assistance with managing the maintenance and operation of their trucks, and that’s where the newly formed PacLease offered a simple solution.

“Thirty years later, companies face new challenges with their private fleets,” continued Southern. “They must adopt new truck technologies, meet stricter state and federal emission regulations and deal with fluctuating fuel prices driven by changing global supply and demand.”

PacLease expanded beyond the US and Canadian borders beginning in the mid-’90s, entering the Mexican full-service leasing market in April of 1996. Eleven years later, the company entered the European full-service leasing market by acquiring a German truck leasing company.

Today, private fleets operate more than four million medium- and heavy-duty commercial trucks in the US alone, representing more than 80% of all commercial trucks on the highway, according to the National Private Truck Council, which Southern says represents a huge growth potential market for full-service leasing.

“As fleets continue to shift towards full-service lease products as their fleet management strategy, PacLease and its franchises are in a good position to take more advantage of the resulting growth potential,” Southern said.