Retail pricing for Class 8 sleeper tractors continued to increase from January through April despite average mileage near-record highs. The findings were released Thursday, June 14, as part of the June edition of Guidelines, a monthly report that analyzes retail and wholesale pricing trends in the automotive and trucking industries.
“High new-truck pricing combined with a low returning supply of used equipment has resulted in sustained price inflation,” says Chris Visser, senior analyst with the American Truck Dealers’ Commercial Truck Guide, a division of the National Automobile Dealers Association.
The ATD/NADA Commercial Truck Guide section of Guidelines shows that retail prices in the sleeper tractor market were off the peak set in September 2011 by a modest 1.5 percent, with mileage 2.4 percent higher. After declining from October 2011 through February, average pricing on sleeper tractors headed upward in March, according to the ATD/NADA guide.
According to the ATD/NADA guide, used sleeper tractors on average sold for $48,809 with 554,402 miles in April. “Because of the low new-truck build rate from 2007 to 2010 combined with the slow but steady domestic recovery, we expect the supply and demand relationship to favor high pricing for sleeper tractors going forward,” Visser says.