New registrations of commercial trailers (24-plus feet) in the U.S. during the 2015 calendar year were 254,700 units, representing the third-highest volume of new trailer registrations since the 2000 calendar year (285,200 units), according to the 2015 Year-end Commercial Vehicles Report now available from IHS Automotive.
The 254,700 units represented a 1 percent increase over new commercial trailer registrations during the 2014 calendar year. The level of new registrations in the 2015 calendar year represents a substantial increase when compared to the 79,200 new units that registered in the 2009 calendar year, when demand for new commercial trailers were at their lowest level since IHS began tracking new trailer registrations in 1985.
“There seems to be a strong relationship between the registration of new commercial tractors (day cabs and sleepers) and new commercial van trailer registrations, based on the data,” said Gary Meteer, director, commercial vehicle solutions at IHS Automotive.
“While the level of increase/decrease is not the same, the direction does align, as new tractor registrations imply ongoing business by commercial carriers and the need to have adequate trailers to carry goods between points.”
In addition to the van segment of the commercial trailer industry, large year-over-year gains were seen by container chassis (13.8 percent growth) and flatbed (9.3 percent) trailers. On the downside, trailer types like grain (-19.7 percent) and dump (-15.5 percent) had a decline in volume in the 2015 calendar year when compared to the 2014 calendar year.