Truckinginfo reported that carriers will continue to be very conservative in replacing their fleet equipment over the next twelve months, according to the Fourth Quarter 2012 Business Expectations Survey from Transport Capital Partners.

According to the report, although there is an increase in carriers planning to acquire equipment, 60% of the smaller carriers (under $25 million in revenue) and 45% of larger carriers indicated they were going to replace under 10% of their tractor fleets. The survey also found that almost half of the carriers do not plan to add any capacity in 2013, the highest percentage since this question was initially asked in August of 2010.

The outlook indicates that 60% of smaller carriers will not add capacity in the next year, compared to 43% in the prior year.  A slight majority of the larger carriers (51%) say they are getting enough returns to justify reinvesting in equipment, compared with only 40% of the smaller carriers.