Trucking companies flush with cash after several quarters of posting higher profits from surging freight volumes and increased freight rates said they were funneling more funds into equipment and real estate, making up for years of restrained buying during the economic downturn. br clear=all>

LAS VEGAS — Several information technology companies that provide software, tracking and communications systems to the trucking industry said their sales and orders increased sharply last year and were headed even higher in 2005.

U.S. wholesale prices for heavy motor trucks jumped 1.6% in January, marking their largest monthly increase in more than five years, as equipment makers continued to pass along higher costs for raw materials, including steel, aluminum, wood and rubber.

Two years after the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was signed into a law holding top company officials liable for certifying the accuracy of financial statements, some trucking executives said that a new provision hitting publicly traded fleets for the first time this tax season is costing them millions of dollars to comply.

Despite efforts by many public truckload carriers to avoid expanding in 2005, overall trucking capacity was poised to grow modestly this year, fleet suppliers, analysts and trucking executives said.

Truckload carriers, who are fighting some of the highest driver turnover levels on record, said they would continue pushing up pay rates to curb what has become a continuous struggle to find and keep qualified drivers.

Surging freight volumes and tight transport capacity pushed trucking profits sharply higher in 2004, even as carriers struggled with pay increases needed to cope with driver recruitment and retention, skyrocketing fuel prices and changing driver hours-of-service regulations. br clear=all>

Smaller trucking companies are having an easier time finding drivers than their larger counterparts, enabling some to increase their fleets and garner more freight, even though many pay substantially less than their larger counterparts, according to interviews with several smaller-fleet representatives.

Trucking stocks as a group have more than tripled the gains of the overall stock market this year, and probably will continue outpacing the market next year as fleets push profits higher, analysts said.

Just as some trucking companies have veered from strictly asset-based work into third-party logistics services, tire manufacturers, too, are trying to earn a dollar from peddling knowledge and not just using machinery.