March Truck Sales Fall By 35%, But Orders Rise for Sixth Month
By Jonathan S. Reiskin, Associate News Editor
This story appears in the April 21 print edition of Transport Topics.
Heavy-duty truck making continued its contraction in March, the 15th straight month that U.S. retail sales declined on a year-over-year basis, but orders continued climbing, holding out hope for a rebound later this year.
Truck manufacturers and their dealers moved 35.2% fewer vehicles in March, compared with last year, and 40.8% fewer in the first quarter, according to the monthly survey by WardsAuto.com.
Additional data from A.C.T. Research Co. and Bear, Stearns & Co. said orders for new North American Class 8s rose by 19.5% in March — the sixth consecutive month for increases from year-ago levels — but the order activity has not yet turned into extra sales.
Navistar Inc., the former International Truck and Engine Corp., was the only truck OEM to post a gain in sales for the month, with a 4.6% increase in Class 8. All other manufacturers had decreases of more than 25%.
While welcoming the news of Navistar’s increase, company spokesman Roy Wiley said that was not enough evidence to warrant predicting a sales expansion.
“Month-to-month results can fluctuate widely. Although we’re doing well, it’s not as much as we’d like. It’s still a soft market and too early to call it that we’ve hit bottom. Maybe we’ll see it in the second half of the year,” Wiley said.
Several truck dealers said sales activity was still squishy.
“I think that skepticism about the new [2007] engines is going away, but everyone is using the ‘recession’ word. We’re hunkering down and paying attention to our parts and service work and watching our spending,” said Kenneth Doonan, president of the Wichita, Kan., Peterbilt dealership.
He said customers are looking for good used equipment and that he can deliver a new tractor quickly, in 30 to 40 days, as compared to the five- or six-month waits that were common during the booming pre-buy days of 2006.
Doug Howard, general manager of the five-store chain of California Truck Centers, said his customers for Daimler’s Freightliners, Sterlings and Western Stars are hesitant because they want to know what the California Air Resources Board will offer as incentives to buy cleaner-burning trucks.
CARB has been “dangling the carrot” of grants to encourage the purchase of cleaner new trucks, Howard said, and some customers have been holding back on purchases they want to make for fear of losing out on a grant.
“People are shopping for lightweight, more aerodynamic trucks. If you can save one mile per gallon when diesel is at $4, you can save $1,300 a year — and that’s half a [monthly] truck payment,” Howard said.
Charles Haden III, president of General Truck Sales Corp., South Charleston, W.Va., said the regulations that drive his sales of Volvos for vocational use are not diesel-engine emission standards but federal permits for coal mining.
“The coal operators say they’ve got this (new truck purchases) in their budgets,” Haden said, but even with interest rates at a low level, “I’m pessimistic about loading up with inventory.”
For the month, OEMs sold 10,419 big trucks, down from 16,090 in March 2007. Quarterly sales fell to 30,248 from 51,116 last year.
Among the sales results by brand, Navistar finished first for the month and second for the quarter, while Freightliner filled in the opposite slots.
In spite of Navistar’s rise for the month, its quarterly sales dropped 17.1%. Freightliner’s monthly sales fell by 47.3% and its quarterly volume was down by 54.5%.
Peterbilt Motors and Kenworth Trucks — the two Paccar Inc. brands — held down the No. 3 and No. 4 market-share slots. Peterbilt’s monthly sales fell by 29.8%, and its quarterly volumes were down 36.6%. Kenworth was down by 35.1% for the month and by 36.5% for the quarter.
The two Volvo AB nameplates, Mack Trucks and Volvo, finished fifth and sixth, respectively. Volvo usually finishes ahead of Mack, but in March, Volvo’s sales eroded much further.
Mack’s monthly sales declined by 26.9%, and quarterly volume fell by 42.5%. Volvo’s March skid was 57.1%, but only 34.3% for the quarter, compared with 2007 levels.
Sterling and Western Star Trucks, Daimler’s two smaller brands, came in seventh and eighth, according to the Wards report. Sterling’s monthly sales fell by 47.9%, while the quarterly volume dropped 53.8%. Western Star slid by 62.9% for the month and by 62.7% for the quarter.
In early results for Class 8 U.S. market share, Freightliner leads for the quarter, cumulatively, with 24.6% of trucks sold versus 24.3% for Navistar. In the 2007 first quarter, Freightliner’s lead over second-place Navistar was more pronounced at 31.9% versus 17.3%.
This story appears in the April 21 print edition of Transport Topics.
Heavy-duty truck making continued its contraction in March, the 15th straight month that U.S. retail sales declined on a year-over-year basis, but orders continued climbing, holding out hope for a rebound later this year.
Truck manufacturers and their dealers moved 35.2% fewer vehicles in March, compared with last year, and 40.8% fewer in the first quarter, according to the monthly survey by WardsAuto.com.
Additional data from A.C.T. Research Co. and Bear, Stearns & Co. said orders for new North American Class 8s rose by 19.5% in March — the sixth consecutive month for increases from year-ago levels — but the order activity has not yet turned into extra sales.
Navistar Inc., the former International Truck and Engine Corp., was the only truck OEM to post a gain in sales for the month, with a 4.6% increase in Class 8. All other manufacturers had decreases of more than 25%.
While welcoming the news of Navistar’s increase, company spokesman Roy Wiley said that was not enough evidence to warrant predicting a sales expansion.
“Month-to-month results can fluctuate widely. Although we’re doing well, it’s not as much as we’d like. It’s still a soft market and too early to call it that we’ve hit bottom. Maybe we’ll see it in the second half of the year,” Wiley said.
Several truck dealers said sales activity was still squishy.
“I think that skepticism about the new [2007] engines is going away, but everyone is using the ‘recession’ word. We’re hunkering down and paying attention to our parts and service work and watching our spending,” said Kenneth Doonan, president of the Wichita, Kan., Peterbilt dealership.
He said customers are looking for good used equipment and that he can deliver a new tractor quickly, in 30 to 40 days, as compared to the five- or six-month waits that were common during the booming pre-buy days of 2006.
Doug Howard, general manager of the five-store chain of California Truck Centers, said his customers for Daimler’s Freightliners, Sterlings and Western Stars are hesitant because they want to know what the California Air Resources Board will offer as incentives to buy cleaner-burning trucks.
CARB has been “dangling the carrot” of grants to encourage the purchase of cleaner new trucks, Howard said, and some customers have been holding back on purchases they want to make for fear of losing out on a grant.
“People are shopping for lightweight, more aerodynamic trucks. If you can save one mile per gallon when diesel is at $4, you can save $1,300 a year — and that’s half a [monthly] truck payment,” Howard said.
Charles Haden III, president of General Truck Sales Corp., South Charleston, W.Va., said the regulations that drive his sales of Volvos for vocational use are not diesel-engine emission standards but federal permits for coal mining.
“The coal operators say they’ve got this (new truck purchases) in their budgets,” Haden said, but even with interest rates at a low level, “I’m pessimistic about loading up with inventory.”
For the month, OEMs sold 10,419 big trucks, down from 16,090 in March 2007. Quarterly sales fell to 30,248 from 51,116 last year.
Among the sales results by brand, Navistar finished first for the month and second for the quarter, while Freightliner filled in the opposite slots.
In spite of Navistar’s rise for the month, its quarterly sales dropped 17.1%. Freightliner’s monthly sales fell by 47.3% and its quarterly volume was down by 54.5%.
Peterbilt Motors and Kenworth Trucks — the two Paccar Inc. brands — held down the No. 3 and No. 4 market-share slots. Peterbilt’s monthly sales fell by 29.8%, and its quarterly volumes were down 36.6%. Kenworth was down by 35.1% for the month and by 36.5% for the quarter.
The two Volvo AB nameplates, Mack Trucks and Volvo, finished fifth and sixth, respectively. Volvo usually finishes ahead of Mack, but in March, Volvo’s sales eroded much further.
Mack’s monthly sales declined by 26.9%, and quarterly volume fell by 42.5%. Volvo’s March skid was 57.1%, but only 34.3% for the quarter, compared with 2007 levels.
Sterling and Western Star Trucks, Daimler’s two smaller brands, came in seventh and eighth, according to the Wards report. Sterling’s monthly sales fell by 47.9%, while the quarterly volume dropped 53.8%. Western Star slid by 62.9% for the month and by 62.7% for the quarter.
In early results for Class 8 U.S. market share, Freightliner leads for the quarter, cumulatively, with 24.6% of trucks sold versus 24.3% for Navistar. In the 2007 first quarter, Freightliner’s lead over second-place Navistar was more pronounced at 31.9% versus 17.3%.
