Used Commercial Vehicle Registrations Hit Record Levels

Used commercial vehicle registrations (Gross Vehicle Weight Rating 3-8) in the U.S. during the first three quarters of 2011 reached record levels at 649,900 units, surpassing the previous record for the first nine months of a calendar year by 23.9 percent, according to marketing solutions company Polk. This level of activity represents more than sixty-six percent of the commercial vehicle transactions during the nine-month period. Together with 333,200 new registrations of GVW 3-8 vehicles over the same time period, total commercial vehicle transactions during the nine-month period reached nearly one million vehicles, based on recent analysis.

The shortage of good clean GVW 8 vehicles in the market has been confirmed, as GVW 8 used vehicle transactions during the first nine months of this year were level with the transactions reported during the first nine months of 2010. However, GVW 8 used vehicle transactions have accounted for just 38.8 percent of total used transactions through September this year, versus 47.6 percent during the same time-frame in 2010. New commercial registrations of GVW 8 vehicles represented 35.2 percent of total new commercial registrations through September.

The analysis is based on a stringent definition of a used transaction, as vehicles included in the summary must meet two specific criteria -- both the business name and the address of the business on the vehicle registration must have changed from the previous owner.

In addition to the GVW 8 analysis, Polk found used registrations for GVW 3 vehicles were up 58 percent in 2011 over 2010 transaction volumes through September, and accounted for 28.4 percent of all used transactions compared to 22.3 percent during the same period last year.

Used GVW 3 vehicles represented 66.3 percent of total GVW 3 vehicle transactions during the nine-month period of 2011 versus 57.4 percent during the same period in 2010.

NAFA Fleet Management Association
125 Village Blvd., Suite 200
Princeton, NJ 08540

Telephone: 609.720.0882 Fax: 609.452.8004