ATD report says employment up, sales down at truck dealerships in 2016

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The American Truck Dealers (ATD) released its annual financial profile of America’s new-truck dealerships, ATD Data 2016, on Wednesday, which notes that while U.S. commercial dealership sales fell last year, employment across the industry has reached its highest point in five years.

ATD reports the nation’s 2,261 franchised heavy- and medium-duty truck dealerships employed 129,392 workers in 2016, up 5.6 percent from the previous year.

“Commercial truck dealerships contribute to their communities with jobs that pay well and offer the opportunity for advancement,” says ATD/NADA Senior Economist Patrick Manzi. “In the service department, demand for technical positions remains high, as dealerships help maintain the commercial vehicles that are a vital part of the U.S. transportation infrastructure.”

Total sales at truck dealerships topped $85.4 billion in 2016, down 8.3 percent. The top-10 states in sales by rank were Texas, California, Pennsylvania, Florida, Ohio, New York, Illinois, Wisconsin, North Carolina and Georgia.

In 2016, total sales on average were more than $37.8 million per dealership, down 8.8 percent from 2015. ATD says net profit before tax was $854,374 per dealership or 2.3 percent as a percentage of total sales, which was down from 3 percent in 2015.

ATD says other key highlights from ATD Data 2016 include:

• An average of 57 workers were employed per dealership in 2016, up from 55 in 2015.
• U.S. truck dealerships employed 44,108 technicians in 2016, up 17.4 percent.
• There were 400,358 Class 4 to Class 8 trucks sold in 2016, down 11 percent compared to the previous year.
• An average of 145 new trucks were sold per dealership in 2016, down from 188 in 2015
• An average 52 used trucks were sold per dealership in 2016, down from 54 in 2015.
• Truck dealerships wrote 10.2 million repair orders, up 7.1 percent.
• The average selling price of a Class 8 new truck was $119,574, down 0.6 percent from 2015.
• The average selling price of a Class 8 used truck was $47,217, down 11.6 percent from 2015.
• Service and parts sales totaled more than $27.9 billion in 2016, up 5.9 percent.

ATD Data 2016 was updated with completely re-benchmarked data and methodologies. As a result, data and figures from previously released reports will not be comparable to the 2016 report.

To download a copy of ATD Data 2016, please CLICK HERE.