Used sleeper truck supply has fallen below its COVID-era floor, pushing prices sharply higher and creating favorable conditions for carriers and leasing companies looking to sell aging equipment, according to Chris Backeberg, President of Daimler Trucks Remarketing. Backeberg cited Sandhills data showing sleeper inventory is now tighter than at any point during the pandemic period.
Sleeper Supply Below COVID-Era Floor
"The sleeper, the supply of sleeper inventory is now below where it was in COVID, during the COVID period," Backeberg said. "So that's great for our carriers and for the leasing companies that buy our products and operate those trucks — they're able to turn out of them and sell them for a nice gain on sale."
"I would say at least for the next 12 to 18 months, used truck supply could remain tight." — Chris Backeberg, President, Daimler Trucks Remarketing
Backeberg attributed the supply crunch to two main factors: carriers holding onto trucks longer during an extended freight downturn, and the broader industry's failure to overproduce during the post-COVID recovery. Microprocessor shortages that constrained new truck builds from 2021 through 2023 inadvertently prevented the kind of oversupply that historically hammers used truck values.
| Metric | Status |
|---|---|
| Sleeper inventory vs pandemic period | Below COVID-era floor, per Sandhills data |
| 2023–2024 inventory build | Nowhere near 2020 levels; cleared quickly |
| Pre-COVID sub-$10,000 inventory | Nearly tens of thousands of units |
| Day cabs to move at start of year | Approximately 800 |
| Forecast tight-supply window | 12–18 months |
Inventory did build again in 2023 and 2024 — though nowhere near 2020 levels, Backeberg said — but cleared quickly. Pre-COVID, Daimler had carried nearly tens of thousands of units in inventory priced under $10,000.
Day Cab Demand and a Shifting Buyer Base
Day cab pricing has also strengthened materially. Backeberg said Daimler Trucks Remarketing entered the year with roughly 800 day cabs to move and has seen demand accelerate every month over the past four months. He attributed the trend directly to growing intermodal volumes and port activity — dynamics FreightWaves has been tracking closely.
The customer base itself has shifted over three decades: what was once 80% owner-operators is now at least 60% small fleets operating fewer than 50 trucks, with FedEx contractors, freight forwarders, and port operators among the primary buyers today.
Residuals, Maintenance and the Select Trucks Warranty
On residuals, Backeberg acknowledged that post-COVID price declines did trigger some commitments, but said Daimler has tightened its modeling to avoid a repeat of the losses the industry absorbed roughly three decades ago. "We try not to overcommit, and we've got really strong models that tell us kind of where we need to be," he said. In strong markets like the current one, residuals often go unactivated; in average or below-average markets, carriers tend to exercise them.
Backeberg pegged the maintenance inflection point for aging trucks at approximately 4 to 4.5 years, describing reliability over a truck's life as a "bathtub curve" that accelerates upward after that threshold. To address buyer concerns, Daimler's Select Trucks program inspects and certifies used equipment, then applies a one-year warranty. Extended coverage for aftertreatment systems or multi-year terms of one, two, or three years beyond that base warranty is available, with terms structured to match a buyer's operating cycle.
New Orders Rising but Used Supply Still Tight
New truck order activity is rising after an 18-month lull, but Backeberg cautioned that stronger new sales do not automatically translate into more used supply in the near term — particularly while used truck pricing remains elevated. As long as values stay strong, he said, fleets and OEM dealers are unlikely to accelerate trade-ins at a pace that meaningfully loosens the market.
For manufacturing executives and procurement directors that rely on truck capacity, the implication is embedded in the same numbers: a truck held longer by a carrier is a truck that is not cycling through the used market, and the maintenance window around 4 to 4.5 years defines when fleets will need certified replacements or extended coverage. Daimler's Select Trucks warranty, at one year with additional aftertreatment or multi-year terms, is the structured response to that longer hold cycle, and the 12-to-18-month tight supply forecast sets the planning horizon for fleet replacements.
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