Basis of Consolidation. The consolidated financial statements reflect the accounts of the Company and its wholly-owned and majority-owned subsidiaries. All significant intercompany profits, transactions, and balances have been eliminated in consolidation.

Use of Estimates. The preparation of consolidated financial statements in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles requires management to make estimates and assumptions that directly affect the amounts reported in its consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes. Actual results could differ from these estimates.

Accounts Receivable. Accounts receivable are shown net of expected losses and primarily include trade receivables. The Company records expected losses for customers based upon a variety of factors including the Company’s historical collection experience, the length of time the account has been outstanding and the financial condition of the customer. If the circumstances related to specific customers were to change, the Company’s estimates of expected losses with respect to the collectability of the related accounts could be further adjusted. The Company’s policy is to write-off receivables when they are determined to be uncollectible. Expected losses are charged to Selling and General and administrative expenses in the Consolidated Statements of Operations. The following table presents the changes in expected losses (in thousands):


	Years ended December 31,
	2020		2019		2018
Balance at beginning of year	$	670	$	665	$	869
Expected losses	362		282		63
Write-offs, net of recoveries	(496)		(277)		(267)
Balance at end of year	$	536	$	670	$	665

Inventories. Inventories are stated at the lower of cost, determined on either the first-in, first-out or average cost method, or net realizable value. The cost of manufactured inventory includes raw material, labor and overhead.


	December 31,
	2020		2019
Chassis converter pool agreements	$	17,767	$	10,164
Income tax receivables	18,073		8,701
Insurance premiums & maintenance agreements	4,384		3,217
Assets held for sale	1,897		3,020
All other	20,915		16,120
	$	63,036	$	41,222

Chassis converter pool agreements represent chassis transferred to the Company on a restricted basis by the manufacturer, who retains the sole authority to authorize commencement of work on the chassis and to make certain other decisions with respect to the chassis including the terms and pricing of sales to the manufacturer’s dealers. Assets held for sale are related to unused land parcels. Insurance premiums and maintenance agreements are charged to expense over the contractual life, which is generally

one year or less. Other items primarily consist of the Company’s commodity swap contracts that are in an asset position, contract assets related to contracts for which the Company recognizes revenue on an over time basis, and investments held by the Company’s captive insurance subsidiary. As of December 31, 2020 and 2019, there was no restricted cash included in prepaid expenses and other current assets.

Property, Plant and Equipment. Property, plant and equipment are recorded at cost, net of accumulated depreciation. Maintenance and repairs are charged to expense as incurred, while expenditures that extend the useful life of an asset are capitalized. Depreciation is recorded using the straight-line method over the estimated useful lives of the depreciable assets. The estimated useful lives are up to 33 years for buildings and building improvements and range from three to ten years for machinery and equipment.

Goodwill. Goodwill represents the excess purchase price over fair value of the net assets acquired. The Company determines its reporting units at the individual operating segment level, or one level below, when there is discrete financial information available that is regularly reviewed by segment management for evaluating operating results. The Company reviews goodwill for impairment, at the reporting unit level, annually on October 1 and whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate its carrying value may not be recoverable. In accordance with ASC 350, Intangibles - Goodwill and Other, goodwill is reviewed for impairment utilizing either a qualitative assessment or a quantitative process.

The Company has the option to first assess qualitative factors to determine whether the existence of events or circumstances leads to a determination that it is more likely than not that the fair value of a reporting unit is less than its carrying amount. An entity has an unconditional option to bypass the qualitative assessment in any period and proceed directly to performing the quantitative impairment test, which is the option the Company has historically chosen.

For reporting units in which the Company performs the quantitative analysis, the Company compares the carrying value, including goodwill, of each reporting unit with its estimated fair value. If the fair value of the reporting unit exceeds its carrying value, the goodwill is not considered impaired. If the carrying value is greater than the fair value, the difference is recognized as an impairment loss charged to the reporting unit. After an impairment loss is recognized, the adjusted carrying amount of goodwill shall be its new accounting basis.

The Company exercised its unconditional option to bypass the qualitative assessment of goodwill for all of its reporting units and instead prepared a quantitative assessment to estimate the fair value of each reporting unit at the annual testing date of October 1, 2020 utilizing a combination of the income approach and the market approach, weighted equally. Based on the quantitative assessment performed, all of the Company’s reporting units exceeded their carrying values; as such, there was no goodwill impairment as a result of the 2020 annual goodwill impairment test.

As of December 31, 2019, goodwill allocated to the Company’s CTP, DPG, and FMP segments was approximately $2.6 million, $140.7 million, and $167.7 million, respectively. Within the DPG segment, goodwill was allocated between the Tank Trailers and Process Systems reporting units in the amount of $98.4 million and $42.3 million, respectively.

The Company did not perform in-line with expectations during the first quarter of 2020, partially as a result of impacts to our business and operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, subsequent to December 31, 2019, the Company’s share price and market capitalization declined. As a result, indicators of impairment were identified and the Company performed an interim quantitative assessment as of March 31, 2020, utilizing a combination of the income and market approaches, which were weighted evenly. The results of the quantitative analysis indicated the carrying value of the FMP and Tank Trailers reporting units exceeded their respective fair values and, accordingly, goodwill impairment charges of $95.8 million and $11.0 million, respectively, were recorded during the first quarter of 2020. The goodwill impairment charges, which are based on Level 3 fair value measurements, are included in Impairment and other, net in the Consolidated Statements of Operations.

In the third quarter of 2018, the Aviation and Truck Equipment (“AVTE”) reporting unit within the Diversified Products reportable segment did not perform in-line with forecasted results driven by unfavorable market conditions that the Company believed would continue to impact the reporting unit for the foreseeable future. As a result, an indicator of impairment was identified, and the Company performed an interim quantitative assessment as of September 30, 2018, utilizing a combination of the income and market approaches. The results of the quantitative analysis indicated the carrying value of the reporting unit exceeded the fair value of the reporting unit and, accordingly, a goodwill impairment of $4.9 million was recorded.

As further described in Note 20, during the fourth quarter of 2020 the Company sold its Beall® brand of tank trailers and associated assets. Prior to the divestiture Beall® was an operating unit within the Tank Trailers reporting unit. In accordance with the relevant accounting guidance, as part of the sale the Company allocated $4.7 million of goodwill based upon the relative fair value of the Beall® operating unit compared to the Tank Trailers reporting unit as a whole. This goodwill was included in the carrying value of the disposed assets and the resulting loss recognized in connection with the sale. Subsequent to the divestiture, the Company performed an impairment assessment for the Tank Trailers reporting unit and concluded the fair value of the reporting unit continued to exceed the carrying value.

Long-Lived Assets. Long-lived assets, consisting primarily of intangible assets and property, plant and equipment, are reviewed for impairment whenever facts and circumstances indicate that the carrying amount may not be recoverable. Specifically, this process involves comparing an asset’s carrying value to the estimated undiscounted future cash flows the asset is expected to generate over its remaining life. If this process were to result in the conclusion that the carrying value of a long-lived asset would not be recoverable, a write-down of the asset to fair value would be recorded through a charge to operations. Fair value is determined based upon discounted cash flows or appraisals as appropriate.

Net intangible assets of approximately $1.1 million were written-off during the fourth quarter of 2020 in connection with the Beall® divestiture. In the third quarter of 2018, due to the impairment indicators noted above related to the AVTE reporting unit with the Diversified Products reportable segment, the Company performed an interim impairment assessment of the long-lived assets of the AVTE reporting unit, including intangible assets and property, plant and equipment. Based on the results of our analysis it was determined that the carrying values of the trade names and property, plant and equipment of the AVTE reporting unit exceeded their fair values and, accordingly, an asset impairment charge totaling $7.1 million was recorded.

AVTE Impairment. On January 22, 2019 the Company announced the divestiture of the AVTE business. In the fourth quarter of 2018, with the financial framework of the agreement to sell the AVTE business largely agreed to with the buyers, the Company evaluated the remaining assets of AVTE for impairment based on the economics of the, then proposed, transaction. As a result of the Company’s impairment analysis, an impairment of $13.0 million was recorded to fully impair all current assets of the AVTE business.

Other Assets. The Company capitalizes the cost of computer software developed or obtained for internal use. Capitalized software is amortized using the straight-line method over three to seven years. As of December 31, 2020 and 2019, the Company had software costs, net of amortization, of $6.1 million and $7.2 million, respectively. Amortization expense for 2020, 2019, and 2018 was $2.0 million, $1.7 million, and $1.5 million, respectively.

Warranties. The Company offers a limited warranty for its products with a coverage period that ranges between one and five years, except that the coverage period for DuraPlate® trailer panels is ten years. The Company passes through component manufacturers’ warranties to our customers. The Company’s policy is to accrue the estimated cost of warranty coverage at the time of the sale.


	2020		2019
Balance as of January 1	$	22,575	$	22,247
Provision for warranties issued in current year	4,334		8,027


Net adjustment to warranty accrual	(228)		(2,320)
Payments	(6,111)		(5,379)
Balance as of December 31	$	20,570	$	22,575

Self Insured Liabilities. The Company is self-insured up to specified limits for medical and workers’ compensation coverage. The self-insurance reserves have been recorded to reflect the undiscounted estimated liabilities, including claims incurred but not reported, as well as catastrophic claims as appropriate.

Income Taxes. The Company determines its provision or benefit for income taxes under the asset and liability method. The asset and liability method measures the expected tax impact at current enacted rates of future taxable income or deductions resulting from differences in the tax and financial reporting basis of assets and liabilities reflected in the Consolidated Balance Sheets. Future tax benefits of tax losses and credit carryforwards are recognized as deferred tax assets. Deferred tax assets are reduced by a valuation allowance to the extent management determines that it is more-likely-than-not the Company would not realize the value of these assets.

The Company accounts for income tax contingencies by prescribing a “more-likely-than-not” recognition threshold that a tax position is required to meet before being recognized in the financial statements.

Used Trailer Trade Commitments. The Company may accept trade-in of used trailers when a customer enters into a contract to purchase a new trailer. However, in the contracts for the sale of the new trailers, there is no commitment to repurchase that trailer or a similar trailer in the future. As of December 31, 2020, the Company had no outstanding trade commitments and $3.5 million outstanding trade commitments as of December 31, 2019. On occasion, the amount of the trade allowance provided for in the used trailer commitments, or cost, may exceed the net realizable value of the underlying used trailer. In these instances, the Company’s policy is to recognize the loss related to these commitments at the time the new trailer revenue is recognized. Net realizable value of used trailers is measured considering market sales data for comparable types of trailers.

Concentration of Credit Risk. Financial instruments that potentially subject us to significant concentrations of credit risk consist principally of cash, cash equivalents, and customer receivables. We place our cash and cash equivalents with high quality financial institutions. Generally, we do not require collateral or other security to support customer receivables.

Research and Development. Research and development expenses are charged to Cost of sales and General and administrative expenses in the Consolidated Statements of Operations as incurred and were $21.9 million, $19.5 million, and $8.8 million in 2020, 2019 and 2018, respectively.