Truck-body bonanza
Feb 1, 2008 12:00 PM, BY RICK WEBER
North America produced 385,829 truck bodies that accounted for $6.57 billion in sales in 2006 and 2007.
But that's not what fascinated Jeremy Brahm and his researchers during the nine months it took them to investigate and produce their report, “The Truck Body Manufacturing Industry in North America,” an analysis and evaluation of the size, segmentation, channels, and competitive structure of the industry underlying the manufacture of truck bodies for specialized/vocational uses.
Brahm, general manager of SpecialtyVehicles.net (SVN), was particularly interested in the difference between standardized (easily replicated) and customized (hard to replicate) products.
Van bodies occupy the top spot in terms of total units (127,880) and sales ($1.3 billion). Meanwhile, concrete mixer trucks, which are seventh in units (8070), are second in sales ($1.01 billion) — a testament to their second-ranked average price of $126,344 per unit. And concrete pumper trucks, which rank last among the 14 truck body types in total units (904), are eighth in sales ($361.6 million) — largely because they are the most expensive unit at $400,000.
“Van bodies, which everybody needs and which are relatively easy to produce, are the fourth-cheapest ($10,211 average price) and there are the most of them,” Brahm says. “Flatbeds are the easiest product to make other than dump or van bodies. It's just a flatbed unit. The profit margins are very low because there's not that much engineering you need to do to them.
“For the bodies that are more complicated, there aren't many units produced but the dollar value is very high because of the complexity. Pumper trucks are pretty complex. With an average price of $400,000, there aren't many on the road. People don't want to buy them unless they need to. So they will rent them from a company that does want to purchase them. But what they find is that if they're spending $400,000, that thing has to be in use constantly. So it has to really take the pounding.
“Same with the street sweeper and refuse trucks. Just for the body, there is a lot of work in there. Side-loading refuse trucks have articulating arms that are not required by other products. Furthermore, refuse trucks have more hydraulics in use for the loading and compaction of trash. This complexity gives the refuse market a high sales value. When you look at a dump truck, you can have a small dump truck or a big dump truck, but the amount of manufacturing needed for a dump truck is exactly the same, no matter what size.”
Acceptable Use Policy blog comments powered by Disqus
