Ryder System, Inc., a commercial truck rental, leasing and transportation solutions company, announced that it is expanding and refreshing its North American rental fleet with 6,700 new trucks, tractors, trailers, and vans to meet accelerating demand as the economy continues to rebound. The new vehicles, which represent multiple classes of tractors, trailers, refrigerated equipment, box trucks, and light-duty vans, will expand Ryder's commercial rental fleet and replace older model vehicles that are being retired.

The 2011 refresh adds to the recent infusion of 4,900 new vehicles introduced in 2010 to accommodate anticipated economic growth. Together, the nearly 12,000 new vehicles raise the percentage of model-year-2010 or newer vehicles in the fleet to more than 40 percent and the total fleet count to nearly 30,000. With the recent fleet expansion, the Ryder rental fleet is one of the largest in the industry and is positioned to address growing demand as Ryder's North American customers require increased capacity.

"This investment represents the second phase of a fleet refresh we launched last year in anticipation of increased demand from both rental and lease customers requiring supplemental capacity in a recovering economy," according to Mark Cicchini, vice president of rental for Ryder. "With this purchase, we can ensure that we continue to respond to our North American customers' diverse requirements with a positive Ryder experience."

To determine the scope and breadth of the vehicle order, Ryder examined utilization and market trends across its customer base. "Last year we identified increasing demand across all classes of vehicles - light-duty vans and trucks, medium-duty trucks, heavy-duty day cabs and sleeper tractors and dry, refrigerated, and flatbed trailers. This year, we're seeing even more of an uptick in demand," Cicchini continued. Together, the 2010 and 2011 fleet expansions will provide our customers with greater availability of all classes, including Ryder's Light Duty MetroVan. We've also added more refrigerated equipment to help our customers comply with recent FDA Food Safety Modernization legislation and more environmentally-friendly emissions standards in certain regions."

All of the model-year-2010 or newer vehicles comply with the latest EPA 2010 emissions standards - underscoring Ryder's commitment to providing customers with access to clean, high-quality, road-ready trucks that help them to meet their own objectives for reducing emissions and minimizing environmental impact.

Ryder has already begun integrating the new equipment into its fleet and will continue to roll out new vehicles through April of this year. As vehicles are retired from Ryder's rental fleet, they will become part of the company's used vehicle inventory. Extending the useful life of retired vehicles by moving them into Ryder's used vehicle inventory increases the availability of newer, highly maintained Ryder Road Ready vehicles available for sale.

Ryder serves customers with more than 500 convenient rental locations across the U.S. and Canada, staffed with a team of knowledgeable rental agents, and stocked with an inventory of close to 30,000 recent-model vehicles.