MARKET TRENDS

摘要

Two universal challenges faced by fleet managers in the 2021 model-year were longer lead times and tight product availability, particularly constrained was van and truck chassis availability. The COVID lockdowns in 2020 and the shutdown of all North American assembly plants from mid-March to mid-May 2020 triggered a domino effect resulting in delays with the new model-year bid process during a period of widespread budget constraints. However, not all fleets experienced longer-than-normal order-to-delivery (OTD) times, especially those that primarily operate passenger car fleets. But in the van and truck segments, there were ongoing delays in OTD times, especially for units requiring upfitting. Another factor that impacted product availability was the early order cut-off dates for some 2021 truck and van models were accelerated due to greater than expected buyer demand. Consequently, many OEMs were challenged to keep up with buyer demand, necessitating earlier than anticipated build-out deadlines, which compressed the ordering window for many 2021 models. Another difficulty in sourcing vans was that cargo van production was being gobbled up by megafleets, such as Amazon, UPS, FedEx, and their numerous delivery service providers (DSPs), who are contracted to provide final-mile delivery. As a result, most fleets found it very challenging to source vans of varying sizes and obtain product with the right specifications.