We derive traditional thermodynamic Bethe ansatz (TBA) equations for the sl(r + 1) Uimin-Sutherland model from the T -system of the quantum transfer matrix. These TBA equations are identical to the ones from the string hypothesis. Next we derive a new family of nonlinear integral equations (NLIE). In particular, a subset of these NLIE forms a system of NLIE which contains only a finite number of unknown functions. For r = 1, this subset of NLIE reduces to Takahashi's NLIE for the XXX spin chain. A relation between the traditional TBA equations and our new NLIE is clarified. Based on our new NLIE, we also calculate the high temperature expansion of the free energy.