March Truck Sales Up 9.8%

This story appears in the April 19 print edition of Transport Topics.

Class 8 U.S. retail truck sales gained 9.8% in March, driven by very strong performances by three original equipment manufacturers, the third month in a row that sales have increased, after falling every month in 2009.

Sales in the first three months this year increased 9.2% over the first quarter of 2009, according to the most recent survey from WardsAuto.com. It was the busiest month for heavy-duty sales — other than a December — since November 2008.

Fleets and owner-operators bought 9,025 heavy-duty trucks, compared with 8,222 in March 2009. The three-month total was 23,839 vehicles, up from 21,832.

“Our business has increased month-over-month since January through March, and I think April will wind up doing the same,” said Glenn Larson, president of the Larson Group, which sells Peterbilt trucks in the region bounded by Arkansas, Kentucky and Missouri.

“We have more trucks on order now than in any other time in the last 20-plus months, and we’ve got a lot of activity on the leasing side,” Larson said.

Peterbilt Motors Co. was one of the OEMs that did particularly well in March, posting a 42% gain, to 1,217 heavy trucks from 857 trucks a year ago. The company’s quarterly volume rose 21.1% to 2,949 units, according to the Ward’s report.

Freightliner Trucks, the flagship brand of Daimler Trucks North America, also had a good month, posting a 34.8% increase to 3,393 Class 8s, more than any other nameplate for March. A year ago, it sold 2,517 vehicles.

Freightliner’s quarterly total rose 27.5% to 8,134 units.

ACT Research Co. said in an April 12 statement that it expects heavy-truck production in North America to grow by 14% this year and by 72% in 2011. The Columbus, Ind., consulting firm said it expects Class 5-7 medium-duty production to rise by 19% this year (click here for story, p. 3).

Larson said refrigerated carriers have been the most active in his sales area, and flatbed carriers even have come back to the market. Dry van carriers have been less active, he said, adding that owner-operators are the major missing link in the sales chain.

Mack Trucks enjoyed the largest monthly percentage increase, 90.6%, but a company spokesman cautioned that sales volumes are still low enough that they can be whipsawed by the occasional large order.

“It’s really nothing more than fluctuations in very difficult market conditions. Last March our sales volumes were very low,” Mack spokesman John Walsh said.

“This March, they were higher, although still not where we’d like them to be,” Walsh said. “And although it’s too soon to say what might be ‘normal’ moving forward, I can tell you that quote activity has increased.”

Mack sold 831 big trucks during the month, compared with 436 in March 2009. The company’s quarterly volume jumped 53% to 1,911 vehicles.

But while Peterbilt, Mack and Freightliner flourished, Navistar Inc. sales of International trucks fell 11.7% to 1,989 in March from 2,252 a year earlier.

“We had some very large fleet orders that did not go out by the end of the month. It’s a matter of timing; look for April,” said Navistar spokesman Roy Wiley.

Navistar’s year-to-date volume rose 0.6% to 6,130 vehicles.

After the severe sales crash last year, OEMs and dealers are welcoming any signs of improvement, but the recovery that has occurred is still sufficiently shallow to leave plenty of room for skepticism.

“We’re not jumping up and down and clicking our heels,” said Ray Mason, president of Columbus (Ohio) Truck & Equipment Co. Inc. “Things are not great out there, but, yes, they’re better than before,” Mason said he has seen some improvement in heavy-duty sales, but medium-duty is still flat.

“There is a tad bit more optimism, but there’s also a lot of nervousness about massive federal spending and huge deficits that could choke off private sector growth,” said Mason, whose company sells Macks and Volvos on the heavy-duty side.

Volvo Trucks North America, a companion company to Mack within Volvo AB, sold 619 big trucks in March, a 3.1% decline from the 639 sold in March 2009. However, its quarterly volume rose 6.4% to 2,047 vehicles.

Kenworth Trucks, like Peterbilt a part of Paccar Inc., sold 859 heavy trucks, a 6.6% decrease from the 920 in March last year. Its three-month tally dipped 1.4% to 2,317 units.

DTNA’s two smaller brands, Western Star and Sterling Trucks, each posted monthly and quarterly declines.

Western Star’s volume fell 20.5% for the month to 62 from 78; and by 14.3% for the three-month period to 180 big trucks.

Sterling, which discontinued production 13 months ago, sold 52 Class 8s, a 90% reduction from the 521 in March 2009. The falloff for the quarter was 85.9% to 167 units.

Martin Daum, chief executive officer of DTNA, said last month that the inventory of Sterlings has fallen to less than 10% of what it had been when production was completed.