Zacks: J.B. Hunt Misses on Q4 Earnings (JBHT)

Report: Wholesale Truck Values Dropped More than Retail

J.D. Power publishes the NADA Used Car Guide, which includes commercial trucks. 

Large supplies of used commercial trucks contributed to wholesale depreciation that was considerably greater than retail depreciation in 2016, according to analysts at J.D. Power Valuation Services. Compared to 2015, trucks brought 30% less at auction and 13% less at retail.

Sleeper tractors lost about 30 percent of value at auction last year, says Power's monthly Guidelines report. Medium-duty trucks were relatively strong in 2016, with both low-cab-forwards and conventionals outperforming heavier conventionals.

Sleeper-cab tractors

In December of 2016, auction volume of Power's benchmark group of sleeper tractors finished out similar to November, with a large volume of 2011 Cascadias sold through one auction company balanced out by lower volume of other models. Specific auction performance of the benchmark model was:

Depreciation generally accelerated in the second half of 2016. From January to December, trucks of model year 2013 lost about 22% of their value, trucks of model year 2012 lost about 37%, and trucks of model year 2011 lost about 32%. These figures translate to an overall monthly loss of about 2.5%, compared to Power's early estimate of 3%, the report said.

Few changes in Q1 and Q2

Few changes in the market the first half of 2017 are expected. Returning supply remains substantial, and economic changes won't take effect until later in the year, said Chris Visser, senior commercial truck analyst at Power.

"Based on deliveries of new trucks over the past five years, we expect an increase in returning supply of trucks in 2017,” he said. “It is likely that OEMs are already stockpiling some quantity of these trucks, keeping them out of the ...Read the rest of this story

December Heavy Truck Orders Hit 6-Month High

North American Class 8 retail sales ended the year on a good note, rising to a six-month high of 21,281 units, according to final numbers from ACT Research.

With December in the books, Class 8 truck orders for all of 2016 totaled 249,952 units while Class 8 production hit 228,347 units. ACT noted a seasonal weakness in production, with a reduced December build amounting to only 14,145 units for the month.

Strong December sales and modest production reduced the industry's inventory overhang by 6,300 units, bringing the full-year inventory correction to nearly 21,000 units. Last year ended with a 36-month low 44,865 inventory units.

“Going forward, the big inventory pulldown into the end of the year, and the full-year inventory correction, will allow industry production to more closely align itself with demand,” said Kenny Vieth, ACT Research president and senior analyst.

Thanks to school buses and recreational vehicles, the Class 5-7 truck market had a banner year for the second consecutive time, with December medium-duty orders rising above 20,000 units for only the second time since April. Net orders for the month totaled a nine-month high of 22,083 units. While the consistency in medium-duty vehicle orders the past two years is almost unheard of, ACT Research expects to see the trend continue for 2017.

“Full-year 2016 saw orders fall 0.7% from 2015 to 229,403 units. School bus and RV orders were up incrementally in 2016, while trucks and step vans saw volumes fall incrementally,” said Vieth. “Given that consumer-related MD economic drivers remain largely unchanged, our expectations are for more of the same in terms of MD demand in 2017.”

Related: Medium-Duty Orders Fall 1.1% in 2016

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Bower Offers Manual Transmission Rebuild Kits

Bower Heavy Duty Bearings by NTN now offers manual transmission rebuild kits in its product lineup, the company announced.

Bower's manual transmission kits are bearing-only kits made of original equipment components. In addition to being available as a kit, Bower transmission bearings can be purchased individually as well, allowing for the flexibility to buy only what a customer needs and reducing excess inventory.

“We have an excellent product to offer the marketplace and we are excited to expand our rebuild kit offering to satisfy the needs of our customers,” said Ray Froude, product manager, auto & heavy duty truck, NTN, “The Bower transmission kit line is a natural extension of our product offering to the rebuilder channel to go along with our Bower differential kits.”

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Insurers to Western truckers: “Get with the program.”

Landstar Moves to Expanded, Newly Built U.S. / Mexico Logistics Service Center in Laredo

MyGeotab app for iOS now available

Geotab released an Apple iOS compatible version of the MyGeotab app. Now, according to the company, fleet managers can see the data they need in a format they are used to – with simple drop down and swipe features, including tracking fleet trends in safety, fuel usage and maintenance.

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