As noted in last month’s article on the shift from straight trucks to tractor-trailer combinations, the bottler/distributor consolidation and SKU proliferation of the last

decade have had an unprecedented impact on the beverage industry, and more specifically, on beverage fleet operations. Along with the continuing shift to tractor-trailer combinations, the industry also is shifting away from traditional side-load beverage bodies and trailers in favor of the more generic “cargo”-style bodies and trailers.