Hopefully this will be the last time we say it, because it is getting fairly old. At the same time, it is not inaccurate. The coronavirus pandemic did not reduce the demand for trucking services and assets, it only pushed that demand to a further date. If 2020’s new truck sales compared to 2019 did not convince readers, surely similar data for trailer sales will do just that.
The Numbers
Freight Transportation Research Associations (FTR) estimates the number of trailer sales in December 2020 to be 43,700. As a side note, ACT Research recently made public their November estimates for trailer sales, saying 39,645 trailer sales, about 1,800 off what FTR said for November.
The December trailer sales numbers from FTR are one of the highest months on record, and would be extraordinary if examined alone. September and October both topped December’s sales, with November seeing a drop.
In total for the year, the trucking industry purchased around 297,000 trailer units. To compare with the year prior, FTR estimated 2019 trailer sales to be 203,000, making this year a 47% increase in sales.
As with new truck sales, this annual number includes the dog days of the pandemic, where trailer sales in April did not even reach five hundred.
Conclusion
The trucking industry remains on fire, with new trucks and trailers rolling off the lots. Whether or not 2021 will be able to keep this momentum going will have to be seen, especially with trucking entering the period which is commonly referred to as the “slow season”.
Do you think January will have more trailer sales, or fewer? Let us know your predictions in the comments and come back next month to see if you were correct!
