Truck Rentals Surge In July As Manufacturers Gear Up For Festival Season

After remaining tepid for two months, truck rentals across key trunk routes witnessed a rebound in July as manufacturers started moving goods to major commercial hubs ahead of the festival season, says a report.

Also, with the Kharif harvest round the corner, commercial tractors and agricultural tractor sales grew 19% and 12%, respectively, month-on-month, the report said.

At the same time, heavy discounting in the passenger vehicle segment spurred an 11% m-o-m growth in car sales in July even as the inventory levels at vehicle dealerships have reached an all-time high, ranging from 67 to 72 days, Shriram Finance said in its monthly mobility report.

The report also stated that the prices of used commercial vehicles rose between 5% - 47% in July although the average selling prices of popular passenger vehicles dropped sharply, while two wheelers' prices remained steady in the previous month.

According to the report, in anticipation of strong festival demand, manufacturers have started moving goods to key commercial hubs, thereby pushing up demand for trucks in July.

The fleet occupancy levels have also started rising with Kolkata-Guwahati-Kolkata route seeing a sharp 3.9% increase in trip rentals.

Used Commercial Vehicles showed a healthy year-on-year growth across all weight categories with the 2-3.5-ton 4-wheeler UCVs prices increasing by as much as 47% followed by a 36% growth in the 1.5-2-ton category, it said.

"With kharif harvest around the corner and copious water stored in reservoirs due to good monsoon rains, rural activity will gain momentum in the coming months. Manufacturers too are ramping up supplies to commercial hubs in anticipation of higher festive offtake across product categories," said YS Chakravarti, MD and CEO of Shriram Finance Ltd.

Two-wheeler sales in the D2D (Dussehra to Dhanteras) may be in the region of 54 lakh to 55 lakh units, up from nearly 45 lakh last year, Chakravarti stated.

During the previous month, according to the Shriram Finance report, sales of new vehicles witnessed an upward movement as discounts entered the market after a long gap. Car sales witnessed an 11% month-on-month rise and a 9% year-on-year rise in July while two-wheeler sales rose 5% on a month-on-month basis (17% increase year-on-year), it said.

Commercial vehicle sales also saw an upward swing on a month-on-month and year-on-year basis with e-rickshaw with cart registering an 87% increase on a year-on-year basis and commercial tractors registering a 19% increase on a month-on-month basis, as per the report.

FASTag toll collections also remained flat as compared to the collection of June 2024, Shriram Finance said.