COLUMBUS, OH — An increased number of US fleets are planning to avoid purchases of 2007 trucks, responses to the Q4 2005 CK Marketing & Communication’s Fleet Sentiment inquiry indicate.

According the report 49% of those fleets responding to a question regarding their purchase plans for 2007 affirmed that they have made a decision to alter their normal buying cycles to avoid adding the ’07 models to their fleet, at least initially.

“This is an increase from 33% in Q3 2005 and is a sign that the closer the industry gets to the effective dates of the new emission requirements, the more likely it becomes that demand for the 2007 models will be reduced regardless of the state of the economy,” CK Marketing commented.

Our own Equipment Trends Survey, conducted in the second quarter of this year, found that 26% of Canadian fleets planned to use a pre-buy strategy while 11% planned to delay purchases. However, there were considerable differences when types of fleets and fleet sizes were taken into consideration.

While 38% of for-hire fleets planned to pre-buy, only 20% of private fleets were planning to do likewise. The pre-buy strategy was most popular with large fleets with 40% indicating they intended to pre-buy compared to 28% of medium-sized fleets and 30% of small fleets.