U.S. Heavy Truck Sales down 26% Year-over-year in September

The following graph shows heavy truck sales since 1967 using data from the BEA. The dashed line is the September 2020 seasonally adjusted annual sales rate (SAAR).

Heavy truck sales really collapsed during the great recession, falling to a low of 180 thousand SAAR in May 2009.  Then heavy truck sales increased to a new all time high of 575 thousand SAAR in September 2019.

However heavy truck sales started declining late last year due to lower oil prices.

Note: "Heavy trucks - trucks more than 14,000 pounds gross vehicle weight."


Click on graph for larger image.

Heavy truck sales really declined towards the end of March due to COVID-19 and the collapse in oil prices.

Heavy truck sales are now back to March 2020 levels, but still below February 2020 (pre-COVID).

Heavy truck sales were at 415 thousand SAAR in September, down from 438 thousand SAAR in August, and down 26% from 563 thousand SAAR in September 2019.

Year-to-date heavy truck sales are down 28% compared to the same period in 2019 (288.5 thousand in 2020 compared to 399.4 thousand in 2019 through September).