Senior Reporter
Medium-Duty Sales in November Point to Ongoing Strength
![Rush Enterprises Medium-Duty Sales](/sites/default/files/styles/article_full_width_image/public/images/articles/rush-enterprises-1029.jpg)
Sales of medium-duty trucks in November barely budged from a year earlier, rising just 1.4% and boosted primarily by a modest gain in the lighter classes, WardsAuto.com reported.
Sales of Class 4-7 trucks inched up to 18,101 compared with 17,844 a year earlier.
![Image](/sites/default/files/1811-truckpie.jpg)
One analyst said the typical pattern is for orders to go from 5-6% below average in September to 7-8% above average in October, then back down to 5-6% below average in November.
“The fact they were pretty much flat is kind of a testament to the ongoing strength in this space. We would have expected to see even as much as a 15% sequential drop,” said Steve Tam, ACT Research Co. vice president.
![Image](/sites/default/files/1811-ts-class8-stk-bar.jpg)
Sales in October were 20,631, according to Ward’s.
In November, Class 7 sales dipped 1.8% to 5,060, Class 6 sales increased 1.7% to 5,328 and Class 4-5 sales increased 3.5% to 7,713.
![Image](/sites/default/files/1811-ts-class8.jpg)
For the 11-month period, total sales rose 6.7% to 215,098 compared with a year earlier as all segments were in positive territory.
At the same time, over the course of the past six and 12 months, medium-duty orders averaged 24,000 and 24,900, respectively, according to ACT.
![Image](/sites/default/files/1811-ts-class7.jpg)
One dealership executive predicted ongoing strength in this sector.
With all the different dynamics, such as last-mile delivery, that are coming into distribution, “I expect medium-duty to remain strong for the next three, four or five years,” W.M. “Rusty” Rush, Chairman and CEO of Rush Enterprises said during a recent media roundtable.
![Image](/sites/default/files/1811-ts-class6.jpg)
And when the market dip comes, it will not be as steep in the medium-duty sector compared with Class 8, he added.
Asked if the company had a plan for selling last-mile vehicles, Rush said, “We will evolve with the OEMs. I feel good that the brands we represent will be on top of all of that and we will, hopefully, benefit from all of that.”
![Image](/sites/default/files/1811-ts-class4-5.jpg)
Rush is the nation’s only publicly traded truck dealership and has 110 locations in 21 states. It sells medium-duty trucks from Ford Motor Co., Hino Trucks and International Truck and Isuzu Commercial Truck of America Inc., in addition to Class 8 trucks. Hino is a unit of Toyota Co. International is a unit of Navistar Inc.
In its third-quarter earnings statement, Rush reported its Class 4-7 sales increased 18% compared with a year earlier and accounted for 5.1% of the total U.S. market.