Class 3-8 Truck Registrations Up 8.3 Percent

New commercial vehicle registrations for GVW 3-8 vehicles for the first quarter of the 2014 calendar year were 143,245 units and represented an increase of 8.3 percent over the 132,272 units registered during the first quarter of the 2013 calendar year, according to the quarterly report produced by R.L. Polk.

While new registrations during the first quarter of the 2014 calendar year exceeded the level achieved during the first quarter of the 2013 calendar year, they actually were down 3 percent from the level achieved during the last quarter of the 2013 calendar year. New registrations by quarter have remained relatively flat since the middle of the 2011 calendar year.

According to the report, since the start of the recovery in the 2010 calendar year, there has only been a single quarter when new registrations of GVW 3-8 vehicles reached the 150,000 unit level.

Additionally, during the first three years of the recovery, the first quarter of the new calendar year showed new registrations higher than the level achieved during the last quarter of the previous calendar year. However, in the 2013 calendar year and now at the start of the 2014 calendar year, new registrations in the first quarter were atually lower than the level achieved during the previous quarter.

The total industry year-over-year growth of 8.3 percent was the result of a strong showing across each of the GVWs. The lowest year-over-year increases were Class 3 (+7.5 percent) and Class 7 (+2 percent) vehicles. The largest year-over-year increases were Class 4 (+14.5 percent) and Class 8 (+9.2 percent) vehicles.

For Class 4 vehicles, the year-over-year increase was the result of a 28.8-percent increase in new registrations by fleets of 500-plus units, according to Polk. The best year-over-year increase was with the Isuzu
brand, an increase of 33.2 percent resulting in a 3-percent increase in segment share. New Class 4 registrations were 12.9-percent better than new Class 4 registration during the last quarter of the 2013 calendar year.

Read R.L. Polk's full quarterly report here.