Trucking News: Used Truck Sales on the Rise + Global Road Safety Week

New-Truck Orders Dip in April but Used Truck Sales and Prices Rise

There’s no clear end in sight to the supply-chain disruptions that have upended planning and raised costs for shippers, writes Bloomberg News.

One reason: it’s historically expensive to add trucks to a fleet.

According to ACT Research, commercial vehicle build slots are essentially full for 2021 but orders continue to roll in. Preliminary Class-8 net orders in April were 33,500 units, down 16% from March, but a whopping 689% higher than April of last year’s COVID-stricken intake. The month-over-month decline “was strictly driven by the supply of open build slots in 2021, rather than a change in new equipment demand,” said Kenny Vieth, ACT’s President and Senior Analyst.

The average price of a used heavy-duty truck increased 5% in April compared to March, ACT reports. Compared to COVID-impacted April 2020, the average price was 45% higher in April, and 30% above its year-ago level for the first four months of 2020.

Slow Down 1% for Safety

This week is Global Road Safety Week and Geotab, a leader in IoT and connected transportation, has partnered with Together for Safer Roads to promote safer driving habits with a goal to reduce the number of speed-related incidents among Geotab-connected fleets by more than 1%.

The companies encourage three simple safe-driving behaviors:

1. Keep your phones down, eyes up and vehicle speed in line with your surroundings and the speed limit.
2. Leave at least two seconds of space between your vehicle and the vehicle in front of you.
3. Keep your vehicle maintained to help ensure that things like tires, brakes and lights are in good condition before heading out on the road.

Speeding is one of the most prevalent factors contributing to crashes and traffic-related deaths globally, and with less traffic on the roads during the pandemic, driving speeds have increased. Telematics technology can provide businesses with vehicle insights relating to speed, harsh braking and accelerating, seat belt usage, technology distraction and more.

Following Road Safety Week, Geotab will make a $25,000 donation to Together for Safer Road’s Vision Zero Technology Fund if the 1% goal is met. The Vision Zero Technology Fund is a grant program dedicated to providing purpose-based, essential service and non-for-profit fleets with key safety technology.

To learn more about Geotab and TSR’s Road Safety Week challenge, visit: https://www.geotab.com/safetyweek.

The I-40 bridge closure, by the numbers

There’s no telling when the fractured I-40 Hernando de Soto Bridge over the Mississippi River in Memphis will reopen to traffic. But there are estimates for how much the closure will cost truckers.

Before it was shut down, the six-lane bridge between Tennessee and Arkansas carried an average of 26,500 trucks a day across the river. The closest detour is I-55, a four-lane bridge that handles more than 41,000 vehicles on a normal day.

With traffic diverted, a route that should take 8 minutes is now closer to 85 minutes, says Arkansas Trucking Association President Shannon Newton.

“At $1.20 per minute, this additional transit time for 26,500 trucks is costing the trucking industry more than $2.4 million each day that the bridge is closed,” Newton says.

According to the American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA), more than one-third or 220,000 of the nation’s 618,000 bridges need structural repair, rehabilitation work or replacement.

Inspectors are working to determine if the I-40 bridge can hold its own weight and the weight of construction crews. For the latest updates, motorists should visit the Arkansas Dept. of Transportation or text the state’s travel information phone line at 501-569-2374. The Tennessee travel service is available at 877-244-0065.