Sales of medium- and heavy-duty trucks in the U.S. showed no signs of cooling in August, as deliveries shot ahead of last year’s pace by 54.2%, WardsAuto data shows.
Big-truck makers sold a total of 27,649 units in Classes 4-8 last month, up from 17,238 in like-2010 on a daily selling rate basis. Sales surged 31.2% in July and 37.8% in June.
Related document: GVW Sales
Every weight class posted sales increases in August, led by Class 8’s 64.2% jump in deliveries to 15,085 from like-2010’s 8,834.
Daimler and its Western Star, Sterling and Freightliner brands led the way on a volume basis, combining for 4,631 deliveries, up 61.5% over last year’s 2,757. Volvo sales rose 83.7% to 2,718 from 1,423 and PACCAR sales doubled to 4,325 from 2,017.
The performance by Class 8 sellers in August trimmed the segment’s inventories to a 51 days’ supply compared with prior-year’s 56.
Class 4 sales increased 76.2% to 962 units from 525 in like-2010.
Daimler again led all gainers in the class as sales more than doubled to 272 trucks from 110 year-ago. Ford posted another solid month, with deliveries rising 35.2% to 173 from 123. Isuzu was the volume leader on 459 deliveries from 223 last year.
Class 5 sales grew 16.9% to 3,313 units from 2,726 in like-2010. Ford saw the most takers, booking a year-over-year gain of 22.1% to 2,228 units from 1,755.
Deliveries of Class 6 trucks more than doubled to 4,494 units from 2,122. International provided the boost, as its sales swelled to 2,333 units from 976 year-ago.
Class 7 sales advanced 20.4% to 3,795 units from 3,031 on the strength of International’s 28.1% year-over-year gain to 1,658 from 1,245.
Inventories of Class 4-7 trucks stood at 31,007 units at month’s end, up from 22,253 in the same period last year. But days’ supply slipped to 64 from 66.
Through August, sales of medium- and heavy-duty trucks in the U.S. totaled 189,840, tracking 35.6% ahead of like-2010’s 139,996.
In other trucking news: Teletrac, a leading provider of advanced fleet-management solutions, launches a new mobile data interface for TMWSuite software users.
Customers of Teletrac and TMW Systems now can use both systems real-time for automated access to vehicle location, motion and mileage data, plus departure and arrival status, eliminating the need to manually track vehicles and status.
Dispatchers also can send route and stop information from TMWSuite directly to the cab. Two-way messaging between dispatch and drivers gives dispatchers greater flexibility to make operational changes on-the-fly based on real-time information, Teletrac says.
All messages are automatically archived.
