According to the Polk Quarterly Commercial Vehicle Report for December 2011, the health of the commercial vehicle market is most accurately illustrated by combining new and used vehicle registrations and examining the year-to-year change.

According to the Polk report, new commercial vehicle registrations were up 23.3% in 2011 compared with the 2010 calendar year. For the 2011 calendar year, combined registrations of GVW 3-8 Commercial Vehicles were 1,252,236 units, an increase of 19.7% when compared to the 2010 calendar year. New commercial vehicle registrations accounted for 36.9% of total commercial vehicles registered during the 2011 calendar year, an increase from the 35.8% reported during the 2010 calendar year.

According to the report, the demand for used commercial vehicles during the 2011 calendar year represented a record level of transactions, surpassing the record previously set in 2010.  However, a closer review illustrates that while total demand for used commercial vehicles achieved a record high, the number of used GVW 8 transactions actually declined from the level reported during the 2010 calendar year, down 4.5%.  

The report further indicates that when only the fourth quarter of the 2011 calendar year is examined, GVW 8 used transactions were down 22.0% from the level achieved during the fourth quarter of the 2010 calendar year and were at the lowest level since the fourth quarter of the 2009 calendar year.

This study indicates that the decline in GVW 8 used transactions is the result of both the 38.2% year-over-year increase in new registrations of GVW 8 vehicles as well as the tight availability of clean used GVW 8 vehicles.