There comes a day for most truckers where it's time to upgrade to a new vehicle. The quality of your rig can play a huge role in the enjoyment of your job, not to mention how well you can do it. Sometimes that means buying a new vehicle, but other times it can mean a trade-in. How can you ensure the best return in a trade-in? Take a look at our best practices to remember for transport trade-ins.

Strike a Balance

When you trade in your truck, your hope is to get out of it more than you put into it in maintenance. You'll likely never make a profit on the buying price, but it's worth knowing your trade-in value is more than the overall maintenance cost. Similar to how renovating certain parts of your home will increase its value, you'll find that is also true with transports.

Do the Research

The same as you would put time into researching before you buy a rig, you should do the same when you're getting ready to trade something in. By knowing what your vehicle would fetch on the open market, you can then have a fair understanding of what you should expect for trade-in value. There will always be a disparity between what you're offered and what it will sell for, but understanding the market will help you get the best deal.

Work Local

As with many things, dealing locally will usually bring you better results. You may be able to get what seems to be a fair trade-in value from a dealer far away, but once you consider the shipping costs of getting the vehicle to them, you might find you'd be better off dealing with someone nearby. Dealing local means that you've got convenient services and access to your trade.

At the end of the day, you want to be able to feel like you've got a good deal that works for you and the dealer and leaves you with the vehicle you need to keep taking jobs. Do you have questions about truck driving training? Let us know! We'd love to help.