Dealer service volumes mixed as market normalizes

06.20.Truck on empty road driving

Dealer parts invoice volume jumped forward for the second consecutive week but service repair volume dropped last week, reported KEA Advisors Monday in its weekly dealer volume survey.

KEA Advisors says the jump in parts invoices last week (Week 29 of the year) was close to levels seen pre-pandemic. Nearly 36,400 invoices were received by the 79 dealers in the company’s weekly survey. That was 2,500 more invoices from the prior week and more than 6,000 invoices more than the shortened Independence Day-impacted week that started the month.

Conversely, after bouncing back from the holiday week in Week 28, the service market slipped in Week 29. The total number of repair orders by the 81 dealers in KEA Advisors’ survey was 5,270 last week. The previous week had total 5,420 orders.

KEA Advisors says these shifts indicate a new normalization of the market after a few hopeful weeks in June. With more states being hammered by COVID-19 cases and unable to fully reopen, the company says it is unlikely the dealer channel will be able to show sustained order levels like it had in January and February (and briefly achieved in June) until the virus is under control.

Average sales per parts invoice and repair order were $252 and $348, respectively, last week. KEA Advisors says that parts invoice total was lower than normal but not the worst of the year. The repair order average was more than $60 below Week 28’s total, which was updated to nearly $500 in Week 29 as more complicated repair orders were completed.

Average repair order labor sales for the year remain above $600, though the market has been below that total for nearly a month.

For more information from KEA Advisor’s weekly volume indicator dealer surveys, please CLICK HERE.

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