According the January Black Book Market Insights report’s section (p. 6) on heavy-duty vocational, over-the-road and regional-haul trucks and tractors, the most recent full month of data showed used-truck values on average declining at the lowest rate in at least the last two years.
The graph charts the monthly decline on average for the three equipment types here in the used market, based on dealer-paid wholesale prices. Noted Charles Cathey, Black Book’s heavy-duty truck and trailer editor, attendant to the Black Book report, “Trucks are moving in and out of service faster and we will be watching to see how much wholesale values are affected.”The well-documented increase in the pace of new truck deliveries within the last year and more, however, could stand to change that in the coming months, accelerating depreciation. Black Book’s report suggests the long waits for those new deliveries have given new luster in particular to late-model used units as new-truck customers in long queues “have been relying on late-model used trucks to fill their needs,” holding those trucks’ values higher.
The report also compares average declines in the three categories of powered equipment for model year ranges 2016-’17 and 2008-’15, with 2016-’17 over-the-road units losing just $82 in December versus more than $240 in November, and 2008-’15 losing $72 in December versus nearly twice that in November.
