Medium Duties Show Fifth Straight Monthly Gain
This story appears in the May 24 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.
Retail sales of medium-duty trucks totaled 19,991 units in April, a 7.9% increase from a year earlier, WardsAuto.com reported May 13.
Despite the fifth straight monthly gain, measured year-over-year, industry officials said they were not yet convinced the medium-truck business had fully rebounded.
“The medium-duty market is improving, albeit slowly,” Kyle Treadway, president of Kenworth Sales Co., which operates 20 locations in six Western states, told Transport Topics.
“I think it’s going to be a jerky recovery, not consistent. We’ve seen some actual closing of sales, but no barnburners,” he said.
Year to date, sales in Classes 3-7 amounted to 76,684 units, a 10.3% jump from the first four months of 2009.
During April, sales in Classes 3, 5 and 6 registered increases, while sales dropped in Classes 4 and 7.
“There have been some increases in niche markets, but overall, I have seen no real rise in medium-duty truck sales,” Jeffrey Hunter, CEO of the Hunter Family of Cos., which operates 10 Peterbilt and four International truck dealerships, in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York, told TT.
“There was that big drop in sales two years ago, and sales since have been steady, but at the much lower rate,” he added.
Ward’s said that Class 7 sales declined to 2,568 trucks in April, from 3,069 units a year earlier, a drop of 16.3%. Class 6 trucks increased by 13.8%, rising to 2,227 this April from 1,957 units last year.
Daimler Trucks North America’s three brands together sold the most Class 7s in April, with Freightliner moving 1,117 units, the discontinued Sterling brand selling 10 vehicles and Mitsubishi Fuso selling three trucks.
Navistar Inc. fell to second place with 967 Class 7s sold. Navistar remained the market leader in this class for the year-to-date at 5,342 sales, compared with Daimler’s 4,546.
“We continue to dominate in the medium market, as we do traditionally,” Navistar spokesman Roy Wiley told TT. “In Class 7, it’s just a monthly fluctuation.”
Like dealers, Wiley saw no evidence of a dramatic change in the medium-duty market.
“Yes, sales are up a little bit from a year ago, but 2009 was the worst truck market in 40 years,” Wiley said. “We don’t expect strong sales until later this year.”
Paccar Inc. was in third place in April in Class 7s, with its Peterbilt brand selling 122 units and its other subsidiary, Kenworth Truck Co., selling 127 units. Daimler and Paccar did not respond to requests for comments.
