---
title: Before You Buy Another Truck, Price Out a Trailer
description: Should a building centre add a flatbed or Moffett trailer instead of another truck? The costs, licence rules and when a trailer beats a straight truck.
---

[Truck Buying Insights for Canadian Building Centres | Trinity](https://trinitytrucksales.ca/phil-aitkens-bi-weekly)

# [Before You Buy Another Truck, Price Out a Trailer](https://trinitytrucksales.ca/phil-aitkens-bi-weekly/before-you-buy-another-truck-price-out-a-trailer)

 Written by [Phil Aitken](https://trinitytrucksales.ca/phil-aitkens-bi-weekly/author/phil-aitken) | Nov 13, 2026, 3:35:03 PM

This month we delivered a new 2027 Manac 36 ft flatbed trailer to Renomat Home Hardware in St-Pierre, set up to carry a Moffett. A few weeks earlier, we put together a tractor-trailer package for Geerlinks Home Hardware in Southwestern Ontario.

Two different dealers, two different setups, and the same underlying question. When you need more delivery capacity, does the answer have to be another straight truck?

For some building centres, a trailer does the job for less money.

## What a trailer gives you

A trailer adds deck space without adding an engine, a transmission and a cab. There's no second set of emissions equipment to maintain, and it doesn't burn diesel sitting at a job site.

It also lets one truck do more than one job. A truck can drop a loaded trailer at a big site, head back for a second load on its own deck, and pick the trailer up later. With a Moffett mounted on the trailer, the crew can unload at a site with no forklift of its own.

And trailers last. A well-maintained flatbed trailer will usually outlive the truck that pulls it.

## What it costs you in licensing

This is where dealers get caught. In Ontario, once a towed trailer weighs more than 4,600 kg, the driver needs a Class A licence, and if the trailer has air brakes, a full Class AZ. Most other provinces draw a similar line around 4,500 to 4,600 kg, and pulling a heavy trailer generally means a Class 1 or a combination endorsement.

That's a bigger licence than most building centre drivers hold. If you're already short on drivers, a trailer that only one person on staff can legally pull doesn't solve much.

[I covered the provincial licence rules earlier this fall](https://trinitytrucksales.ca/phil-aitkens-bi-weekly/same-truck-different-licence-how-provincial-rules-should-shape-your-fleet), and they're worth reading before you price a trailer.

## What it costs you in operation

Trailers are commercial vehicles. They need annual inspections, plates, insurance and maintenance on brakes, lights, tires and the landing gear. They take up yard space. And backing a trailer into a tight job site takes skill. A driver who's good with a straight truck isn't automatically good with a trailer.

## Think about the pulling truck

A trailer is only as good as the truck in front of it. The pulling truck needs the right hitch or fifth wheel, the right towing and combined weight ratings, and brake connections that match the trailer. If your current trucks weren't spec'd to tow, adding a heavy trailer can mean upgrades or a different truck. Factor that in before you compare prices.

## When it makes sense

A trailer starts to look good when you have long or rural routes where one bigger load beats two trips, when you move product between stores, when you deliver to big sites that can take a full trailer drop, or when you want a Moffett-equipped unit without buying another truck.

It makes less sense when most of your deliveries are small drops in town, when your yard is already tight, or when you don't have drivers with the licence to pull it.

## Run both numbers

Before your next capacity purchase, price both options. A straight truck with deck and equipment on one side. A trailer, plus anything the pulling truck needs (hitch, brake controller or air connections, higher rating), plus the cost of getting a driver licensed, on the other.

Then look at what each one does for your actual deliveries. Sometimes the truck wins. Sometimes the trailer wins by a lot.

If you'd like help working through both, give me a call. We build both through our upfitting partners and can lay them side by side for you.

[View full post](https://trinitytrucksales.ca/phil-aitkens-bi-weekly/before-you-buy-another-truck-price-out-a-trailer)

```json
{
  "@context" : "http://schema.org",
  "@type" : "BlogPosting",
  "author" : {
    "@type" : "Person",
    "name" : "Phil Aitken"
  },
  "dateModified" : "2026-11-13T15:35:03.374Z",
  "datePublished" : "2026-11-13T15:35:03Z",
  "headline" : "Before You Buy Another Truck, Price Out a Trailer",
  "image" : {
    "@type" : "ImageObject",
    "height" : 944,
    "url" : "https://44792138.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/44792138/Imported%20sitepage%20images/0001-8898508812324246297.jpg",
    "width" : 1680
  },
  "mainEntityOfPage" : "https://trinitytrucksales.ca/phil-aitkens-bi-weekly/before-you-buy-another-truck-price-out-a-trailer",
  "publisher" : {
    "@type" : "Organization",
    "logo" : {
      "@type" : "ImageObject",
      "height" : 60,
      "url" : "/hs/hsstatic/content_shared_assets/static-1.4092/img/default-amp-logo.png",
      "width" : 60
    },
    "name" : "Phil Aitken's Bi-Weekly"
  }
}
```