This week we run through the results of our first-quarter MarketPulse survey and uncover how big the gulf is between in business performance between dealer and aftermarket operations. We also touch on great truck tonnage data, good and not so good used truck sales and how a new AI resource could change how you seek and sell truck parts. We also address a leadership change at Mack, some large recalls in the work truck and bus sectors and request your input for our three award programs.
Lucas: Hey everyone. Lucas here for the TPS weekly news roundup. A lot of really exciting stuff this week on TPS, let’s go ahead and get started.
I’m going to begin with our MarketPulse survey. We conducted our Q1 survey over the first few weeks of April. We posted our results this week. Some really interesting insights this week. Dealers rating the first quarter of 2026 as a 5.15 on our 1 to 10 scale. The aftermarket is 6.47, so a huge difference between how the aftermarket and dealers rated the first quarter. The dealer 5.15 [is] kind of in line with what we’ve seen in the dealer channel for the last couple years. The 6.47 from the aftermarket — the best we’ve seen for either channel since the latter of 2023. A much better quarter for the aftermarket than dealers. The difference between the two, 1.32, that’s the largest difference we’ve seen [between the segments].
So, the aftermarket definitely seems to be in a better place as we move into 2026 and they have more hope moving forward. The dealers anticipating a 5.95 for Q2, which is much better, but the aftermarket’s still ahead at 6.39. Definitely we’re seeing the impact of truck orders, or the lack of truck orders, in 2025 starting to hit dealers in 2026. Hitting their bottom lines, impacting their profitability.
Some other stuff this week. ATA released its most recent tonnage report and ATA reporting that the first quarter of 2026 was the best seasonally adjusted tonnage quarter since Q3 of 2017. That’s huge news for the industry. Tonnage only up 0.3% month over month, but when you put the three months together, because February was so strong, January was a good month, ATA is saying that really things are starting to turn around from a tonnage perspective. That’s really exciting.
Also, I had a story about PartsNow.AI, which is an agentic AI based parts lookup tool. I wrote that story a couple weeks ago about the best parts lookup tools where I mentioned AI is going to be increasingly popular in this sector, and immediately PartsNow.AI was launched. Like almost the same week. So, really interesting story there. You can learn about how PartsNow.AI works, how you can input parts information. You can put in pictures. It can manage voice commands. Anything you put in, it will look for parts, it will source parts, and you can order directly on the website. So, check that story out. You can learn more about PartsNow.AI. They [also] are looking for distributors to join their network so if you’re a distributor and you want to sell more online, this might be an opportunity for you. Check that out.
Some other quick things. Used trucks. Retail volumes hit a five-year high in the used truck sector in March, J.D. Power reporting this week. That’s huge. Trucks up 1.2 trucks per rooftop month over month, up 2.1 trucks year over year. A huge change in the used truck sector. Volume and pricing in the auction sector went down substantially, precipitously, because everybody was buying in the retail space. Ultimately, though, that is a good sign.
We still have headwinds in freight. We still have headwinds in new and used truck sales, but seeing these things all kind of happening at the right time is good for the industry.
And then Mack announced it’ll be getting a new president, Stephen Roy, is retiring on Aug. 1. Wilson Lirmann will be taking over, so you can check that story out.
NHTSA had a big recall this week, a lot of recalls for Ford and Ram trucks. Additionally, some bus recalls, so check that story out.
And then our awards programs. I know I’ve mentioned this on multiple roundups in the past, but we’re still in the process of accepting nominations for our award programs: Successful Dealer award, Trailblazer Award, Distributor of the Year award. If you have not nominated a dealer or a distributor for any of our awards, please do so. The links are available on the website. You can find them in the newsletters. Be sure to nominate. We want to make sure we’re always recognizing the best [companies] in the dealer and aftermarket channels. We want to make sure we’re recognizing the best companies and we need your help for that. So, please make those nominations.
Again, check out the newsletter, check out the website for anything. Always like and subscribe to these videos so you don’t miss them and have a great weekend. Thank you everybody. Bye.
