Trucking news and briefs for Monday, April 17, 2023:
While preliminary used truck sales numbers for March show prices were up 4% over February, prices were down 26% from March 2022.ACT Research
The improvement was consistent with, but smaller in comparison to, the 93% increase in auction sales and a 34% bump in wholesale transactions. Bringing auctions and wholesale transactions into the mix, the used truck industry saw sales increase 53% month over month.
Compared to February, average retail volumes increased 23% and prices increased 4%, while miles per average truck were down 6% and age per truck down 2%.
Compared to a year ago, though, sales volumes were down 13%, and prices were down even further -- 26%. Miles and age were fairly consistent with a year ago.
Steve Tam, vice president at ACT Research, said March is historically one of the strongest months for used truck sales, but typically "not as strong as indicated by [March's] preliminary data,” he noted. “Regardless, buyers are taking advantage of improved inventory and lower prices to refresh their fleets with younger, lower mileage units.”
Tam said the 4% retail price increase for Class 8 used trucks from February to March brought the average sales price to $74,500. “The unexpected gain is somewhat the result of younger, lower mileage trucks making their way into the market as the logjam on new truck purchases and subsequent trades continued to break up,” he said.
