i think in Europe they seem to out source this side much more and in the UK certainly there is definitely more out side service than in house. By doing this customers are able to concentrate on there core business knowing that if a truck brakes down they can just call out a engineer. In ports and terminals this is a bit different where they do employ there own service engineers ,but for how long might be up for discussion as the benefits of not having the cost's of employment and parts stock and knowing that you can have on site engineers from the service company takes hold.

In Europe the contract hire market is quite developed and well run by both interdependent dealers and manufactures alike. I can see this move around the globe as manufactures and some companies like Briggs look to expand there business