Truck Sales Decline 18.6%

This story appears in the March. 18 print edition of Transport Topics.

The contraction in heavy-duty U.S. retail truck sales worsened in February, with volume falling by 18.6%, the sharpest rate of decline during the current six-month streak of reductions.

WardsAuto.com said March 12 that fleets and owner-operators bought 12,546 Class 8 trucks for the month, down from 15,418 in February 2012. For the year’s first two months combined, sales dropped 13% to 25,704 units from 29,537 in the corresponding period last year.

All seven major brands had volume declines for the month. In January, three original equipment manufacturers posted gains for the month.

Prior to the contraction that started in September, sales expanded, year-over-year, for 32 consecutive months.

The Ward’s report was published a week before the Mid-America Trucking Show, North America’s largest truck show. Spokesmen for Daimler Trucks North America and Kenworth Truck Co. said they would talk about sales at MATS and that they did not want to preempt those presentations.

A spokeswoman for Navistar International Corp. said the company’s recent earnings call offered management’s best assessment of sales. Chief Operating Officer Troy Clarke said the total North American heavy-duty market will probably contract by less than 10% this year from a year earlier.

Clarke, who will rise to CEO on April 15, also said Navistar’s market share should stop declining around midyear and then begin rising in the fall. Having abandoned an earlier choice in engine technology, Navistar is in the middle of a conversion process of adopting selective catalytic reduction technology that will meet federal emissions regulations.

Representatives of other truck makers did not respond to requests for comment, but dealers were more inclined to talk.

“You get a lot of calls and inquiries with no real activity toward an actual purchase,” said Russell Cobb, general manager of the Calvert City, Ky., branch of TAG Truck Center, a Freightliner Trucks dealership.

“Everybody’s very hesitant. They’re always waiting on something. They’re waiting on the election, or they’re waiting on taxes. There’s always something that they’re using as a reason to wait,” Cobb said.

Car imports through Southeastern U.S. ports are driving some business for Tom Nehl Truck Co. in Jacksonville, Fla., said CEO Steve Bacalis.

“Carhaul is an application that is doing well for us,” Bacalis said, adding that his customers are working the auto yards at the ports of Jacksonville and Brunswick, Ga.

Sioux Falls (S.D.) Truck & Trailer, a Kenworth and Volvo dealership, saw a small pickup in orders in February from the previous month, and the requests for new trucks generally have been coming in batches for 25 to 50 trucks, said corporate sales manager Mike Rush.

The business also has received inquiries from potential customers asking about larger purchases, he said, “but we haven’t seen the actual final stamp on any of those large orders.”

Among the individual brands, Daimler’s Freightliner kept its market-share lead, selling 5,406 big trucks, or 6.1% less than the 5,760 sold in February 2012. Cumulative 2013 sales are up 9.5% to 11,274 trucks.

Navistar’s volume fell 29.6% for the month to 1,851 heavy trucks from 2,628. The year-to-date volume is off 36.5% to 3,810 Class 8s.

The two operating companies of Paccar Inc., Peterbilt Motors and Kenworth, took third and fourth places for the month.

Peterbilt sold 1,638 big trucks for the month, down 19.5% from 2,035. Cumulative sales dropped 20.8% to 3,218 units.

Kenworth sales fell 40.8%, the most severe rate of monthly decline of any OEM, with volume hitting 1,442 from 2,437 the previous February. Two-month volume dropped 32.9% to 2,976 units.

Volvo Trucks joined Freightliner as one of the two OEMs to hold volume-loss rates under double digits. Monthly sales dipped 6.5% to 1,266 heavy trucks from 1,354. Cumulative sales rose 8.9% to 2,303 vehicles.

Mack Trucks, also a part of Sweden’s Volvo Group, took sixth place for the month, selling 781 big trucks, a 23.4% decline from 1,020. Year-to-date sales dropped 26.1% to 1,641 units.

Western Star Trucks, DTNA’s premium and severe-service niche line, sold 162 big trucks, a 12% decline from 184 the previous February. Two-month sales increased by 20.4% to 479 units.

The Freightliner and Western Star results mean DTNA is the only heavy-duty truck-making corporation to gain volume over the first two months. Paccar, Volvo Group and Navistar all shed volume during the first two months.

Staff Reporter Seth Clevenger contributed to this story.