Truck leasing spans full-service contracts, finance leases, operating leases, rental fleets and maintenance agreements. The figures below describe U.S. and North American commercial-vehicle populations, provider operations, private-fleet strategies, contract terms and accounting measures across 2022–2024, with estimates and survey results identified separately.
Key Truck Leasing Statistics
The most useful headline measures are:
- 10 million Class 3-8 commercial vehicles were estimated to be in the United States in December 2023.
- 5 million vehicles, or half of the estimated U.S. Class 3-8 commercial fleet, were privately owned in December 2023.
- About 1 million U.S. commercial vehicles were estimated to be leased or rented from third parties such as Ryder in December 2023.
- More than 435,000 vehicles were managed by Penske Transportation Solutions in North America on December 31, 2024.
- More than 282,900 vehicles were owned by Penske and leased to customers under full-service lease or rental agreements on December 31, 2024.
- Penske full-service tractor and truck lease terms generally ran 4–7 years in 2024.
- Penske full-service trailer lease terms generally ran 6–12 years in 2024.
- $3.835 billion was Ryder’s 2024 revenue from lease, related maintenance and rental activities in its Fleet Management Solutions segment.
- Ryder commercial rental utilization was 70% in 2024, compared with 75% in 2023.
- 40,800 vehicles were in PacLease’s worldwide fleet in 2024.
- $354.9 million was Rush Enterprises’ 2024 vehicle-leasing and rental revenue.
- 10,148 commercial vehicles were in Rush’s lease and rental fleet on December 31, 2024.
- 28% of surveyed U.S. private-fleet respondents said they leased most of their fleet in the cited 2024 NPTC survey.
- 34% of surveyed U.S. private-fleet respondents used a combination of ownership and leasing for heavy-duty acquisition in the cited 2024 NPTC survey.
- 32% of surveyed U.S. private-fleet respondents used the rental market for heavy-duty acquisition in the cited 2024 NPTC survey.
- PACCAR finance and operating leases generally ran 3–5 years in 2024.
- $32.6 million was PACCAR’s 2024 operating-lease revenue from truck sales with residual-value guarantees.
- Approximately 3.4 years was the average age of Penske’s Class 8 full-service lease tractor fleet on December 31, 2024.
Contents
- U.S. commercial fleet scale and leased segments
- Penske fleet size, coverage and lease terms
- Ryder revenue, margins and utilization trends
- PacLease and regional commercial-vehicle fleets
- Private-fleet leasing adoption and rental strategies
- Truck leasing costs, residual values and finance terms
U.S. Commercial Fleet Scale and Truck Leasing Segments
Ryder’s December 2023 market estimate covers 10 million Class 3-8 commercial vehicles in the United States. This is broader than a heavy-duty tractor-trailer count and comes from compiled IHS Markit data cited in Ryder’s 2024 Form 10-K, so it is an industry estimate rather than a registration census (Ryder System, Inc. 2024 Form 10-K).
| Estimated U.S. Class 3-8 segment, December 2023 | Vehicles | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| Private company ownership | 5 million | About half of the estimated fleet |
| For-hire carriers | 2 million | Rounded market estimate |
| Bank or financial-institution leasing | 1 million | Not separately split into trucks only |
| Utilities and government fleets | 1 million | Fleet segment, not itself a leasing measure |
| Third-party leasing or rental | 1 million | Leasing and rental combined |
The same estimate places private ownership at roughly 50% of the fleet, while bank or financial-institution leasing and third-party leasing or rental each represent roughly 10% when the rounded categories are divided by the 10-million total. Those percentages are derived from rounded figures, and the third-party category combines leasing with rental.
The market estimate therefore describes participation across ownership and access models rather than a clean national truck-leasing penetration rate. It also should not be compared directly with Penske’s North American opportunity estimate or with heavy-duty-only surveys.
Penske Truck Leasing Data: Fleet Size, Coverage and Terms
Penske Transportation Solutions managed more than 435,000 trucks, tractors and trailers in North America on December 31, 2024. The disclosed fleet combines vehicles under lease, rental and maintenance contracts, including customer-owned vehicles under maintenance agreements (Penske Automotive Group, Inc. 2024 Form 10-K).
- More than 282,900 vehicles were owned by Penske and leased to customers under full-service lease or rental agreements at that date.
- More than 152,300 customer-owned and operated vehicles received contract maintenance from Penske; these vehicles were not necessarily leased from Penske.
- The commercial and consumer rental fleet contained approximately 94,800 vehicles at December 31, 2024.
- Rental periods generally ranged from less than one day to 12 months, while full-service contracts were measured in years.
- Penske operated approximately 930 locations for full-service leasing, rental and contract maintenance in North America.
Penske’s full-service lease terms generally ran 4–7 years for tractors and trucks and 6–12 years for trailers in 2024. These are general ranges, not averages, and individual contracts can differ.
The company’s international logistics business had approximately 520 locations and generated 28% of PTS revenue in 2024. That figure provides operating context for PTS but is not truck-leasing revenue.
Ryder Truck Leasing Revenue, Margins and Utilization Trends
Ryder reports lease, related maintenance and rental together, so its segment figures should not be read as stand-alone lease revenue. The category produced $4.174 billion in 2022, $3.937 billion in 2023 and $3.835 billion in 2024, with company-reported declines of 6% in 2023 and 3% in 2024 (Ryder System, Inc. 2024 Form 10-K).
| Ryder Fleet Management Solutions measure | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lease, related maintenance and rental revenue | $4.174B | $3.937B | $3.835B |
| Direct cost | $2.774B | $2.684B | $2.623B |
| Gross margin percentage | 34% | 32% | 32% |
| Commercial rental utilization | — | 75% | 70% |
Ryder’s 2024 direct cost for the combined category was $2.623 billion, excluding vehicle-financing interest expense, and gross margin was $1.212 billion, or 32% of revenue. The company’s average commercial rental fleet was 10% smaller in 2024 than in 2023, while rental utilization fell from 75% to 70%; rental utilization is not lease-fleet utilization.
For scale, Ryder reported $456 million of fuel-services revenue in 2024, which is ancillary rather than truck-leasing revenue. Total Ryder revenue was $12.636 billion, including the $3.835 billion combined lease-related maintenance and rental category.
PacLease and Regional Commercial-Vehicle Fleet Statistics
PACCAR reported a 40,800-vehicle worldwide PacLease fleet in 2024, covering Kenworth, Peterbilt and DAF vehicles. PacLease also recorded its 35th consecutive year of profitability, although that streak does not quantify lease margins (PACCAR 2024 Annual Report).
- PACCAR MX engines powered more than 44% of new PacLease Class 8 trucks purchased in 2024; this applies to new Class 8 purchases, not the entire leased fleet.
- Rush Enterprises generated $354.9 million of vehicle-leasing and rental revenue in 2024.
- Vehicle leasing and rental represented 4.5% of Rush Enterprises’ total revenue in 2024, a company revenue share rather than market share.
- Rush had 10,148 commercial vehicles in its lease and rental fleet at December 31, 2024, across its PacLease and Idealease franchises.
- Rush’s financing contracts generally ran from 2–7 years in 2024; these were finance contracts, not lease contracts.
The PacLease and Rush figures illustrate why regional-provider comparisons require category labels. A worldwide manufacturer-affiliated lease fleet, a U.S.-focused dealer network and a combined lease-and-rental revenue line do not measure the same population.
Private-Fleet Truck Leasing Adoption and Rental Strategies
The Truck Renting and Leasing Association said its member companies purchased more than 30% of all new over-the-road trucks in the United States in its 2024 submission. It also estimated that members accounted for more than 25% of all Class 2-8 trucks operating on U.S. highways; both are trade-association estimates without an underlying purchase dataset supplied here (Comments of Truck Renting and Leasing Association on EPA ACF Waiver Request).
The cited 2024 NPTC Annual Benchmark Survey adds a respondent-level view of acquisition strategy among U.S. private fleets:
| Reported heavy-duty acquisition strategy | Share of respondents | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| Leased most of the fleet | 28% | Respondent share |
| Combination of ownership and leasing | 34% | Respondent strategy |
| Used the rental market | 32% | Respondent strategy |
These percentages are not the share of all private-fleet vehicles leased, rented or owned. TRALA cited the NPTC survey secondhand, so the results should be treated as survey responses about strategy rather than vehicle-level national penetration.
Penske’s ownership structure is separate from customer adoption: Penske held a 28.9% ownership interest in Penske Truck Leasing Co., L.P.; Penske Corporation owned 41.1%; and Mitsui & Co. owned 30.0%, all at December 31, 2024. These corporate ownership percentages do not represent shares of leased vehicles or revenue.
Truck Leasing Costs, Residual Values and Finance Terms
The supplied company disclosures provide contract durations and accounting measures rather than a universal monthly truck-leasing price. PACCAR reported that both finance leases and operating leases generally ran 3–5 years in 2024, depending on equipment type and use (PACCAR 2024 Annual Report).
| Term or accounting measure | Reported figure | Scope and period |
|---|---|---|
| PACCAR finance-lease term | 3–5 years | PACCAR Financial Services, 2024 |
| PACCAR operating-lease term | 3–5 years | PACCAR Financial Services, 2024 |
| PACCAR operating-lease revenue with residual-value guarantees | $32.6M | 2024 |
| Comparable PACCAR revenue in the same category | $69.7M | 2023 |
| Comparable PACCAR revenue in the same category | $105.9M | 2022 |
PACCAR’s residual-value-guarantee revenue is a specific accounting category, not total lease revenue. The decline from $105.9 million in 2022 to $69.7 million in 2023 and $32.6 million in 2024 should therefore not be generalized into a market-wide leasing trend.
Penske reported an estimated $5.3 billion of undiscounted rent obligations under operating leases at December 31, 2024, principally for dealerships, offices and equipment rather than only trucks. Its equipment leases generally had terms of less than five years, and leases with initial terms of 12 months or less were not recorded on its balance sheet; these are accounting and equipment-lease measures, not customer truck-lease prices (Penske Automotive Group, Inc. 2024 Form 10-K).
Penske’s Class 8 full-service lease tractor fleet had an average age of approximately 3.4 years on December 31, 2024. Management also estimated up to 5.0 million potential U.S. and Canadian commercial-truck opportunities for full-service leasing and contract maintenance, compared with approximately 9.6 million commercial trucks operating in those countries; the resulting roughly 52% is a derived share of two rounded estimates, not current penetration.