According to the latest release of the State of the Industry: U.S. Classes 3-8 Used Trucks, published by ACT Research, used Class 8 retail volumes (same dealer sales) increased 16 percent month over month in December. Average mileage was down 4 percent month over month, with average price and age down 2 percent and 3 percent, respectively. Longer term, average price and miles were lower, with age flat year over year.

“Activity typically sees a moderate increase in December, so the increase was directionally consistent with expectations,” said Steve Tam, Vice President at ACT Research. He continued, “We ascribe the relative strength to the elevated new truck sales in November and December, which helped to sate pent-up demand in the inventory-starved used truck market. While the economy and freight markets are slowing, effectively cooling used truck demand, there are many used truck buyers who have been forced to hold onto their trucks beyond their expiration dates.”

Tam concluded, “Used Class 8 retail truck sales for December were still meaningfully weaker for longer-term comparisons, falling 30 percent year over year and 35 percent for all of 2022 compared to full year 2021. We estimate the total Class 8 used truck market sales for 2022 were 245,000 units, down from 265,000 (-7.5 percent) in 2021.”