The energy sector has sprung to life again in 2017 after nearly two years of dormancy throughout North America.
In Texas and Oklahoma, where oil wells were abandoned en masse earlier this decade, work returned slowly in the early months of the year before accelerating. FleetPride CEO Al Dragone says his company’s Central region locations were its most profitable nationwide thanks to the boom. Component suppliers also saw their business nudge up in high-energy areas.
“You could see those pockets where business was bouncing off the bottom of the trough from the prior years,” says Brett Penzkofer, vice president, Aftermarket, North America at Meritor.
The same was true in Canada, where low oil prices had been even more damaging.
“We experienced a recession due to commodity pricing for almost two years. A lot of our region was deeply affected by the price collapse,” says John Bzeta, president at Fleet Brake. “We’re up tremendously from 2016, but that was a significant drop.”
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