In the past decade, the total cost of truck ownership has increased exponentially due to rising wages, overheads, road taxes, insurance rates, and repair charges. After the debt crisis of 2008 in the US and elsewhere in the world, many enterprises and individuals were forced to be financially conservative, and as a result, truck manufacturers took a big hit.
Fortunately as of 2013, it looks as if the Truck Manufacturing Industry in the US is finally back on the road toward sunny horizons, and big profits.
Yes, much of the US is still struggling to regain economic security, however after years of being all-but-obsolete, the words ”financial assistance” are once again a viable option for would-be truck buyers.
Indeed, our research shows that as many as 80 percent of all commercial vehicles and buses, are purchased with loans, or financial assistance plans. The penetration of automobile financing is expected to increase even more in the next few years, because of the intense competition among banking and non-banking financial companies. This high availability of finance coupled with increasing disposable income levels offers an ideal platform for the strong growth of the market in the coming years, and an optimistic forecast for truck manufacturers in the US.
Moreover, to complement the country’s period of economic recovery, most US truck manufacturers have started to provide many value-added services to make their end-users purchases a more worthwhile investment. In this regard, truck manufacturers are now offering various services such as used truck trading, financing and leasing services, contract hire, fleet management solutions, telematics services, project management, toll management, and many other services to increase their value chain, and maintain a long-term relationship with customers.
With all this considered, we at TechNavio are confident that after years of experiencing the negative side-effects of economic drought, the automotive market and Truck Manufacturing Industry in the US will be going nowhere but up for the foreseeable future.
For more information, view our 2012-2016 report on the Truck Manufacturing Industry in the US.
