Sales of Used Trucks Drop 3.3% in May

This story appears in the July 8 print edition of Transport Topics.

Used Class 8 truck sales slipped 3.3% in May from a year earlier, but average pricing held steady, ACT Research reported.

Sellers surveyed by ACT moved 2,246 Class 8 vehicles in May, down from the 2,322 sold during the same month in 2012. On a month-to-month basis, May’s sales volume dipped 1.2% from 2,273 in April.

Although sales are down, the overall market for used trucks is “solid,” ACT Vice President Steve Tam said. “It’s a nice balance between supply and demand.”

The situation varies, however, depending on a truck’s age, mileage and application.

Dealers have plenty of Class 8 aerodynamic sleepers to sell, but late-model, low-mileage units are still harder to find than other equipment, Tam said.

Meanwhile, construction and vocational trucks have risen in value as inventories of that equipment dwindle, Tam said.

“Some of the heavy-haul trucks are getting scarcer and scarcer, so they’re demanding premiums, and that corresponds to the pickup in construction activity,” he said.

ACT’s figures reflect a recent increase in the size of its monthly survey, which includes retailers, wholesalers and auctioneers.

Tam said the firm added sales data from additional dealers to its historical sales figures. The additions expanded the survey’s sample size to perhaps 9% to 11% of the entire used market from about 8% to 10%, he said.

Through five months, used Class 8 sales have totaled 11,160 in 2013, down 5% from the same timeframe in 2012, according to ACT.

Sales volumes could improve in the second half of the year, though, as the new truck market improves and carriers trade in their older equipment, Tam predicted.

“That’s going to refresh the inventory a bit in the used market and hopefully stem some of the leakage in the volumes,” but it also could cause average pricing to deteriorate further, he said.

In May, the average price of a used truck sold was $39,590, virtually flat from the year-ago average of $39,644 and 1.4% lower than $40,157 in April, ACT reported.

“We’ve really been centering right around that $40,000 mark essentially all year,” Tam said.

ACT continues to project that the full-year 2013 average for used-truck pricing will be down 5% to 10% from 2012.

“Last year was a very good year for pricing, and you just can’t continue to maintain that kind of growth rate,” Tam said.

Average mileage declined to 562,000 in May from 584,000 a year ago, while average age increased to 92 months from 85 months.

Rick Clark, vice president at warranty provider National Truck Protection in Cranford, N.J., said warranty sales for used trucks at his business have been flat in recent months.

“April, May and June were almost identical,” said Clark, who also is president of the Used Truck Association. “Demand is light but steady.”

Separately, the American Truck Dealers reported that the average retail price for a used Class 8 sleeper with fewer than 1 million miles increased to a record high in May for a third straight month.

The May average price of $51,646 was up from $48,141 a year earlier and $51,391 in April, ATD said.

“On the retail side, most of the reason we see higher average pricing is because the newer model years are showing up in greater numbers, specifically ’09s and ’10s,” said ATD senior analyst Chris Visser. “They obviously have lower mileage and bring higher pricing, which pushes up the average.”

On the other hand, average pricing for the wholesale and auction used markets declined to $28,468 in May, from $32,597 a year earlier and $29,431 in April, Visser added.