Class 8 Truck Sales Once Again Below Year-Ago Levels
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U.S. Class 8 retail sales continued the pattern of trending below year-ago levels in October, according to data from Wards Intelligence.
Truck sales for the month declined 2.6% to 20,859 units from 21,417 in 2023. They also decreased 4.4% from 21,813 units reported the previous month. Year-to-date sales are down 11.4% to 198,220 units from 223,751. The only year-over-year increase to date was a 1.8% rise in July.
“From a demand perspective, the number wasn’t particularly surprising,” ACT Research Vice President Steve Tam said of the October result. “We typically see maybe a little bit of an increase going from September to October, if you look at seasonality or look at history. But in terms of the bigger picture, sales are tracking pretty close to where we think demand is.”
RELATED: Class 8 orders fall 5% in October
Tam noted that some lumpiness on the production side has affected availability of trucks.
Tam
“There’s typically a month or two months — once the truck is produced — before it actually ends up getting sold, and the production numbers were a little bit soft in August,” he said. “There was a big high side surprise in September for sales. In all likelihood, we’ll probably see a pretty good increase in November’s sales.”
Tam is expecting at least somewhat of a sales uptick nearing the end of the year — consistent with normal trends — followed by a slowdown. Broadly, he doesn’t expect the sales environment to fundamentally improve until freight market fundamentals balance out. But he is optimistic the industry is nearing that point.
“We’re starting to see some consistent improvement on the freight side from a volume perspective; rates are getting some traction in the spot markets, and so that’s a good thing,” Tam said. “I think we’re just right on the cusp of seeing some improvements, so we’re pretty anxious for 2025 and seeing if we can’t keep things on the right track.”
Wards data showed that only two of the seven major brands saw sales gains compared with last year. Freightliner, a brand of Daimler Truck North America, received the largest market share with 7,863 trucks, or 37.7% of all sales for the month. The truck brand also was tied with having the biggest year-over-year growth at 18.2%. Western Star, also a DTNA brand, posted the only other increase, also at 18.2%.
Carson
“Despite the year-over-year market decline, we are extremely satisfied with our recent performance and the 43.1% share of market for our Freightliner and Western Star brands in October,” said David Carson, senior vice president of sales and marketing at DTNA. “This marks the third consecutive month in which we have surpassed the 40% share of market in U.S. Class 8, driven by continued robust customer demand.”
Carson pointed specifically to the Western Star 47X and 49X vocational models for contributing to the company’s strong results. For over-the-road, he warned that it will take time for the industry to recalibrate capacity, even if the much-discussed freight recession is nearing its end.
“Sales for our Freightliner brand on-highway products have stabilized, and we feel well-positioned to meet our customers’ needs for the remainder of the year,” Carson said. “With the production start of our new fifth-generation Freightliner Cascadia next year, we and our customers will be ready and well-positioned for what lies ahead.”
Randall
Mack Trucks sales decreased 7.2% to 1,363 units from the 1,469 reported during the year-ago period. Volvo Trucks North America sales declined 16.8% to 1,840 units from 2,212. Mack and VTNA are brands of Volvo Group.
“While the freight market continues to adjust, we’re seeing encouraging retail sales activity and particularly strong demand in the vocational segment with ongoing construction spending and manufacturing investment,” said Jonathan Randall, president of Mack Trucks North America. “These continue to create opportunities, and Mack is well-positioned to support our customers’ success.”
International Motors sales in October decreased 10.6% to 2,533 units from 2,833, Peterbilt Motors Co. sales decreased 13.6% to 3,119 units from 3,612, and Kenworth Truck Co. saw sales fall 18.2% to 3,013 from 3,682. Peterbilt and Kenworth are Paccar Inc. brands.
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