Used-Truck Demand Strong, Even as Availability Grows

This story appears in the Sept. 15 print edition of Transport Topics.

Strong demand for used trucks is keeping prices at high levels, even as availability of newer equipment continues to grow, analysts said.

The average retail price for a used Class 8 sleeper was a record $60,767 in July, the American Truck Dealers reported. That was up 15.3% from $52,719 a year earlier and 6.4% higher than June’s average of $57,138.

“Demand is just extremely strong,” said ATD analyst Chris Visser, who attributed the used market’s strength to rising freight levels, the need for fleets to expand as the economy improves and the comparatively high price of new models.

He said the industry’s return to shorter trade-in cycles since the recession is introducing more late-model, low-mileage trucks to the used marketplace, but demand for those trucks has been high enough to outweigh the increased supply and keep depreciation to a minimum.

“From a dealer’s perspective, it’s a good time to be in the used-truck market,” Visser said. “You have more trucks to sell but they’re still at historically high prices.”

ACT Research said pricing also rose for all types of used Class 8 trucks sold via retail, wholesale and auction channels.

The average price climbed to $47,818 in July, a 21% increase from $39,530 a year earlier, and up 1% from $47,345 in June, ACT said.

The July price edged up sequentially even though the average mileage for the transactions included in ACT’s data jumped to 575,000, from 510,100 in June.

May, June and July were the three highest months on record for used-truck pricing, with May’s average of $48,642

standing out as the high point, ACT Vice President Steve Tam said. Figures for August were not yet available.

Used sales volumes have also been on the rise.

The sellers tracked by ACT sold 2,430 trucks in July, up from 2,137 in July 2013 and 2,376 in June. ACT tracks figures for about 10% of the overall market.

Nevertheless, used-truck dealers continue to say they could sell more vehicles if they had them, Tam said.

“Just as the new-truck buyers are feeling pretty good about their prospects, so are the

traditional used-truck buyers,” he said.

The market remained hot through July and August, avoiding the typical seasonal slowdown usually seen during those months, said Rick Clark, vice president of National Truck Protection Co. in Cranford, New Jersey.

“This is probably the best summer I’ve ever seen,” said Clark, who has been in the business for almost 30 years and also is the Used Truck Association’s president. “Everybody’s busy. Normally July drops and August drops more, but this has been steady all the way through.”

During the second quarter, used Class 8 transactions climbed 10.1% from the same quarter last year, according to registration data from IHS Automotive.

That compared with 17.8% year-over-year growth in new heavy-duty truck registrations, IHS said in its quarterly Polk report on commercial vehicles.

The firm cited an “increase in the availability of clean used Class 8 equipment” resulting from the “significant” amount of new-truck registrations by large fleets.

A recent market report from Black Book said model year 2012 and 2013 heavy-duty trucks depreciated an average of $328 in August, compared with $279 in July.

“Heading into the fall and winter months we feel confident that this depreciation will increase due to the large number of trades that should be showing up at auction as a

result of the very heavy ordering over the past couple of months,” the report said. “We are not quite sure how many of these orders are replacements rather than additional units, but more than likely most are replacements and will help to further satisfy the current used-model demand and also increase the depreciation levels.”

Truck and engine manufacturer Navistar International Corp.’s used truck sales jumped 29% in its fiscal third quarter from a year earlier, Chief Operating Officer Jack Allen said on the company’s Sept. 3 earnings call.

In July, the manufacturer announced its “Diamond Renewed” program to boost the attractiveness of its model year 2010 and newer International models equipped with the company’s MaxxForce exhaust-gas recirculation engines.

Navistar began its switch to selective catalytic reduction technology in 2012 after its previous EGR-only approach failed to meet federal emission standards without the use of emissions credits.

The program includes mechanical reconditioning and up to a two-year, 200,000-mile warranty for used Internationals with fewer than 400,000 miles.

“Our Diamond Renewed program, which we launched in the third quarter, has created a lot of interest in the marketplace,” Allen said on the call. “We’re raising the bar by providing our used truck customers with a new truck experience.”