Used Truck Prices Decline as More Inventory Appears

This story appears in the Aug. 6 print edition of Transport Topics.

Used truck prices declined in June from the previous month, as sales slowed and more inventory became available, according to ACT Research and several dealers.

The average price of a used truck sold by retailers, wholesalers and auctioneers in June was $40,236, down 2.7% from the previous month, ACT Vice President Steve Tam said. That average still represents a 2.4% increase from a year ago.

ACT also said a total of 1,743 used trucks were sold in June at the sellers it surveys, up 4.8% from the previous month but down 23.5% from the 2,279 sold in June 2011. ACT’s data capture about 8%-10% of the market, according to the research firm.

Tam said June was the first month some dealers indicated they had too much used equipment on their lots and that there was noticeable pricing “erosion.”

“It’s the opposite situation of what we saw most of last year and even for the beginning of this year,” he said.

When [dealers] start to have more trucks than they need, and they start to worry that they paid too much for the trucks that are on their lots, things tend to move at lower prices as they try to protect themselves,” Tam added.

Despite the June pricing decline, used trucks averaged $42,313 through the first six months of 2012, compared with $37,953 in the first half of 2011, ACT reported.

In addition, the average retail price of a used Class 8 sleeper was about $51,000 in June, up from $48,000 in May, according to American Truck Dealers, a division of the National Automobile Dealers Association.

Chris Visser, senior analyst for ATD/NADA, attributed that pricing rise to a drop in average mileage. “A pool of trucks with slightly lower mileage happened to become available on the market,” he said.

Tam said strength in new truck sales could be driving the used inventory growth. “The guys that buy new continue to tell us that they aren’t increasing the size of their fleets, so every new truck purchase results in a used truck trade, and that’s where the inventory is starting to break lose,” he said.

Bobby Williams, regional used trucks manager at Bruckner Truck Sales, which operates 19 locations in Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico, said customers want what’s hard to find: a used truck with low mileage and high fuel efficiency.

Williams, who is vice president of the Used Truck Association, said late-model trade-ins generally come in with more mileage than they did a few years ago, which he attributed to a growing number of team drivers on the road.

Meanwhile, pricing for used trucks is declining, he said. “A lot of that is because we don’t have as many owner-operator spec’d, low-mileage trucks,” he said, while more high-mileage units are sitting on lots.

Kelly Mahoney, used truck sales manager at Pacific Truck Centers Inc., Ridgefield, Wash., said he’s also seen market values decline for some used trucks.

“In the last six months, I’ve seen a lot of devaluation in the inventory that’s 2007 and older,” he said. “I’ve seen the market shift from the mid $30,000s down to high $20,000s in a rather short amount of time.”

“We’re sitting on some dated inventory now that was really hot six months ago,” he added.

Andy Jeanor, new and used trucks sales manager at Andy Mohr Truck Center in Indianapolis, said trucks with fewer than 400,000 miles “are getting harder and harder to find.”

“The fleets held onto their trucks so long the trade-ins you get right now have 700,000 to 800,000 miles,” Jeanor said.