Demand for trucks, market returns to strength – AgriNews

DECATUR, IL – Demand for trucks is strong. But the offer? Well, be prepared to wait if you want a new power unit.

“You won’t see a stock truck at our place. Everything was sold out before it got here,” said Kyle Zwicker, a truck sales representative for CIT Trucks.

The industry still faces some supply chain challenges highlighted by the COVID-19 shutdowns in 2020, Zwicker said.

“We’re still very restrictive on certain components. During COVID in 2020, there were extended shutdowns in the industry, and maybe not your major suppliers like Kenworth and some other OEMs, where shutdowns were limited to six , seven, eight weeks. “It was mainly downstream suppliers, the places that make the steering gear and the axles and a lot of the electrical components,” he said.

A shortage of computer chips also continues to impact the availability of new trucks.

“We still have challenges with electrical connectors, and the chip shortage is still a real thing,” Zwicker said.

On the bright side, demand is strong for new and used power units.

“Demand for units is still really strong. From the standpoint of the used car market, it has risen dramatically and reached its peak about 18 months ago and is starting to decline. The taxi market will never go down,” Zwicker said. “It has always been strong, even in times of Recession.”

Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), manufacturers of original equipment, continue to operate on a customization basis due to ongoing component shortages.

“Dealers only have a certain number of trucks to sell,” the salesperson said.

Zwicker works at Kenworth’s Troy specialty location. This brand is still very popular in the agricultural truck market.

“The T800, T880, W9, W990s and long hood versions have always been very popular in the agricultural market and have done well and continue to do well, from people buying their first truck to the used market,” Zwicker said.

Another factor that continues to influence the availability and supply of both spare parts and power units is environmental regulations and emission requirements.

“You have hundreds, if not thousands, of parts, from the engines to the emissions system. It never fails that the one component you need is the one you can’t get, but we’ve done our best to solve a lot of that. The requirements for “Emissions haven’t helped, but that’s the world we live in.”

While 2024 will not bring new requirements, Zwicker said the industry is currently studying the impacts of an EPA proposal, announced in April, that would further reduce greenhouse gas emissions, especially nitrous oxides, from heavy trucks, starting Model year 2027 units.

“There will be more regulations we have to deal with, more complexity, and in the agricultural market, that’s frustration. These trucks are tools for moving products. They’re not the main part of the business. Our customers need them to run and they need them to run reliably,” she adds. Regulations bring frustration and uncertainty not only to buyers, but to dealers and OEMs.

When it comes to electric trucks, Zwicker said he doesn’t see them as something on the immediate horizon in the Midwest agricultural trucking market.

“Kenworth makes two electric vehicles, one in a Class 6/Class 7 straight truck application, and they are making a unit that is isolated at this point from the coasts,” he said. “The infrastructure for electric trucks is not there at all here and I don’t see it as something on the near horizon, at least.” Not in this market.”