Cat stopped supplying engines for on-highway use prior to 2010. The Cat dump truck ended in 2016 and was a very limited production in any event and not really in the realm of over-the-road Class 8 trucks. While your premise of good maintenance furthering their longevity is correct the available supply of used trucks with Cat engines continues to decline in the market. Some of the factors responsible for that decline are that the rest of the truck deteriorates to the point where repairs become horrendously difficult due to lack of available parts and fewer truck mechanics with expertise in working on older trucks. Sadly I know all too well about these issues.
Another factor that moves against maintaining older trucks is the fuel mileage improvements made in newer trucks. It is quite easy for a more recent model to get a 20% and better improvement over a model that is 10 to 20 years older. When you are running this as a business it is about your operating costs versus revenue. Unfortunately we have many people who get into owning a truck not because they want to run a business but for "seeing the country, getting away from the rat-race,thinking they want the lifestyle etc." and so they fail in the business unless they use a spouse's income to paper over their poor management. Of course as the article points out you have facets of the industry openly lying, basically committing fraud, and falsifying the realities and needed skills to survive in the business. They do so because they can mostly get away with it and because they keep making money.
The carnage to credit histories, marriages, family relationships etc. is enormous in this industry and despite the big boys in the industry blathering on about how they care about the drivers the reality is that there are thousands upon thousands of current and former drivers/owner-operators who can recite chapter and verse about the lies and crooked behavior on the part of those big boys over the last several decades. The turnover rate for drivers in this industry is indefensible and so they don't want that metric getting attention. Simply put the facts show that when they do hire drivers they lie to them, abuse them, cheat them and burn them out. Then they cry to the government that they should be able to bring in 18 year olds to drive. The Feds (responding to their campaign coffers) have now blessed this idea. While at the same time they are screaming about accident prevention they make this move that will massively contribute to an increase in those accidents.
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