Used-truck purchasing is heating up with freight rates.
- Sales are up in the Class 8 market, accelerating in March from the month prior.
- Same-dealer sales: +9.1% over February, according to ACT Research’s preliminary report for the month. That increase followed a big 23% jump in February from January’s sales volumes.
- Mixed signals, meanwhile, were on offer in different cuts of pricing data, generally showing flat or rising month-over-month trends.
- According to a J.D. Power analyst, increased volume and stable pricing suggests buyers "are more confident about their prospects in the freight environment.”
Based on ACT Research’s accounting, here's the rundown showing activity up substantially in March over February, with pricing barely budging for retail sales:
Average pricing for used Class 8 trucks sold in March was essentially flat from February but was down slightly from a year ago.ACT Research
“The preliminary average retail price (same dealer sales) of used Class 8 trucks held steady in March, adding 1.3%" month over month "to hit $55,591” for a broad average, said Steve Tam, vice president at ACT. “Pricing also came in below seasonal expectations, which called for an almost 11% gain.”
Data from Overdrive parent company Fusable’s Price Digests, which evaluates average market value and asking prices for used Class 8 sleeper tractors, showed higher pricing for units in the 2-, 5- and 10-year-old ranges.
The newer two-year-olds brought 13.7% more money in March than in February but still fetched prices below the same month a year ago. Five-year-old units brought about about 5.5% more, and 10-year-old sleepers were only up about 2.1% from February to March.
Despite the sales volume increase from February to March, ACT’s Tam said the “gain was not quite as large as expected based on historical seasonality," which suggested a 12% monthly increase in ACT's modeling. Auction sales outperformed retail sales -- up 25% month over month -- which Tam said is typical for the last month of a quarter.
J.D. Power’s March data showed similar trends, with retail sales prices holding essentially flat month-over-month in March (up 0.8%), while retail volumes surged to their highest level in nearly five years. Wholesale pricing was up considerably more than retail, at 3.5%, and auction prices were down 7.1%.
Pricing in all three segments was down year-over-year.
J.D. Power's average retail sales tracking for 3-5-year-old sleeper tractors was essentially flat in March from February, likewise largely in line with 2025 pricing.J.D. Power
The average age of sleeper tractors sold in March, according to J.D. Power, was up slightly from February by just a month but newer by four months compared to March 2025. Average mileage on units sold was up 2.7% compared to February and up a half percent from March 2025.
J.D. Power’s Chris Visser called March’s market data “encouraging,” adding that “retail results were the standout, with the substantial increase in sales volume combined with stable pricing suggesting that buyers are more confident about their prospects in the freight environment.”
“On the wholesale side, higher pricing suggests that dealers are more actively looking for specific inventory,” Visser added. “Auction volume and pricing were the exceptions to the positive trends, but downward movement in that channel may mean more inventory is being sold through retail and wholesale channels.”
The biggest hurdle in the current market, Visser noted, is fuel prices, which are “placing sustained pressure on consumer behavior and overall market momentum.”
[Related: 2026 rates surge transforming a fuel nightmare]
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