The 1Q 2011 Fleet Sentiment Report Buying Index as reported by CK Commercial Vehicle Research rose to a new high of 102.3 in January 2011, with 58% indicating they were planning to place orders for power equipment during the next three months and 42% planning to place trailer orders during the same period.
Average planned order size, as a percentage of current equipment inventories, is 11.6% for power units and 10.4% for trailers. The Fleet Sentiment Report finds that input received during January from their fleet advisors support a good beginning to 2011 for new equipment demand.
The Fleet Sentiment Report also includes input from fleets about their 2010 emission engine choices.
“The responses we have been receiving from our fleet advisors indicates that as they are making the decision, all but a small percentage of the group that regularly reports to us have determined that SCR offers them more benefits than the advanced EGR technology,” said Chris Kemmer, CKCVR’s founder. “There does still remain a significant percentage that have yet to make up their mind, but the trend is definitely towards the SCR brands.”
CKCVR regularly polls a group of small, medium, and large for-hire, private and government fleet operators about their equipment purchasing plans and overall fleet environment. The quarterly Fleet Sentiment survey includes questions about short- and longer-term equipment buying plans, preferred OEM, new specs, current fleet capacity vs freight demand, equipment utilization rates including the percent of parked vehicles, 2010 emission engine choices, and best-in-class product ratings.
In January 2011, 55 fleets operating more than 70,000 medium- and heavy-duty power units and 140,000 trailers responded to the quarterly Fleet Sentiment questionnaire.
Complete survey results are reported in the Fleet Sentiment Report, a quarterly report of CK Commercial Vehicle Research. For more information, visit www.ckcvr.com/fleetsentiment or send an e-mail to [email protected].