Sales inched down 0.1% to 19,942 units from 19,961 a year ago. (Daimler Truck)
The U.S. retail market for medium-duty trucks experienced a relatively strong month in March with sales seeing a slight loss against year-ago comparisons, according to data from Wards Intelligence.
Classes 4-7 retail truck sales for the month inched down 0.1% to 19,942 units from 19,961 a year ago. This loss follows unfavorable year-over-year comparisons going back to about midway through last year.
Medium-duty truck sales also increased 26% sequentially from the 15,824 units reported in February. But notably, the results were dragged down by a lack of activity in Class 4.
“If you think about the end markets and who the consumers are in that space, or the buyers, it is a little bit different market,” ACT Research Vice President Steve Tam said. “It tends to have significantly higher exposure to the services part of the economy as opposed to the goods part of the economy. There are just an awful lot of landscape trucks, for example, down in that Class 4 space.”
Tam speculated whether the ongoing tariff discussions have had a notable impact. On one hand, he does note that much of the Class 4 market consists of imports from Japan. But he also pointed out that the commercial vehicle sector has been able to dodge much of the tariff scrutiny so far. He suggested economic uncertainty might be causing the softening.
Tam
“So I don’t know what taxes, maybe, that they’re not avoiding, or that their customers are afraid that they’re not going to be able to avoid, that’s causing the softening in the space, or whether it’s just an economically driven squishiness as far as what’s going on,” Tam said.
According to Tam, the uneven sales pattern may indicate clearing backlogs. He explained that a key challenge for customers has been the unusually long time required for ordered trucks to be upfitted and delivered in the current market. Reducing these backlogs would signal the market moving toward better balance.
Class 7 truck sales increased 15% to 5,011 units from 4,359. Class 6 sales jumped 21.3% to 6,589 units from 5,432. Class 5 sales decreased 5% to 7,052 units from 7,421. Class 4 fell 53.1% to 1,290 from 2,749.
Freightliner, a brand of Daimler Truck North America, led Class 7 sales with 2,285 units and topped the Class 6 category with 1,775 trucks. Ford sold the most Class 5 vehicles at 4,430 units, while Isuzu led Class 4 with 685 trucks.
