Equipment

U.S., Canada truck sales down in April

May 13, 2016

U.S. and Canadian heavy-duty truck sales continued a sharp decline in April. According to WardsAuto data, U.S. sales of medium- and heavy-duty trucks in April fell 8.0% on a daily basis from year-ago, totaling 34,548 units, while Canada’s combined medium- and heavy-duty deliveries slid 24.4% on a daily basis.

U.S. and Canadian heavy-duty truck sales continued a sharp decline in April. According to WardsAuto data, U.S. sales of medium- and heavy-duty trucks in April fell 8% on a daily basis from a year ago, totaling 34,548 units, while Canada’s combined medium- and heavy-duty deliveries slid 24.4% on a daily basis.In the U.S., the total was brought down by a 21.9% drop in Class 8 trucks, the largest year-over-year decline since the recessionary conditions in 2009. Sales have been down every month this year, with the 4-month period 10.3% below like-2015. Heavy-truck sales totaled 16,633 units in April.According to WardsAuto, only Western Star posted a gain, up 23.7%, but on small volume of 483 units. Mack and Volvo took the greatest downturns in the group, slipping 34.2% and 35.1%, respectively. International (-29.4%), Kenworth (-28.5%) and Peterbilt (-24.7%) also saw double-digit declines. Freightliner showed a smaller drop, -8.5%, allowing its share to grow to 38.2% from 32.6% in April 2015.Canada’s big-truck sales also fell last month, with all weight classes recording year-over-year losses, WardsAuto reports. Class 8 took the sharpest downturn, plummeting 30.6% to 1,955 units. The January-April tally came to 7,280 deliveries, 24.6% behind year-ago.WardsAuto reports that all brands in the group showed double-digit declines, except Western Star, up 4.7% with 207 deliveries. The greatest decreases were suffered by Peterbilt (-49.5%), Volvo (-46.1%) and Kenworth (-42.0%).Medium-duty trucks came in 13.2% below prior-year with 1,353 units. The April figure brought the year-to-date total to 4,655, 3.2% greater than like-2015.