Higher demand from cargo transport and an increase of about 20 per cent in rentals across 2010-11 have countered the trend of rising model prices, leading to an 18 per cent growth in truck sales to 39,708 units in March.

Sales growth in the month, however, was slower than the 32 per cent growth seen in the full year 2010-11.

According to an Indian Foundation of Transport Research and Training report, higher rentals on trunk routes have given an impetus to fleet owners to replace or expand their operations fleet to meet the demand from consignors. Non-fleet-owning transport contractors, who normally outsource to small truck owners, have also been prompted to set up their own fleet.

Year-round buoyancy

“The robust growth was backed by year-round buoyancy in the cargo offerings despite 9-10 per cent increase in vehicle prices, 15 per cent increase in tyre prices coupled with a jump in auto finance charges and other operating costs. Though sales were up, vehicle manufacturers were unable to meet the demand due to lack of supply from component manufacturers,” said the report.

Highest increase in sales was seen in the 15-16.3-tonne medium commercial vehicle (CV) segment (33 per cent), followed by the 25.2-31-tonne multi-axle vehicles (17 per cent) and 8-12 tonne intermediate CVs (14 per cent).

Truck Rentals

A 15-20 per cent increase in despatches in March, has led truck rentals on trunk routes to move up 3-3.5 per cent. Higher rentals were also boosted by the Jat agitation in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan which pushed cargo towards truck transport from rail freight.

“Although fixed cost and variable operating expenses during 2010-11 continued to go up due to increase in vehicle prices, auto finance charges, truck tyre prices and higher diesel prices, truck rentals outpaced the increase on the back of sustained buoyancy in cargo offerings from manufacturing sector, import-export trade and movement of food items/industrial commodities,” said the IFTRT report.

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