CK Commercial Vehicle Research has found that its Fleet Equipment Buying Index for the third quarter of 2009 has improved slightly to 89 percent from the second quarter's 88.1 percent.


"Like most economic/business news today - we can only say that our Buying Index is 'less worse' but at least going in the right direction - up," the report said.

The index is a simple measure of planned buying behavior of for-hire, private and government fleets over the next three months. A lower reading indicates that fewer fleets are planning to purchase equipment while a higher reading indicates that more are planning to purchase equipment.

CKCVR regularly polls a group of fleet operators about their equipment purchasing and maintenance practices. Looking to the next three months, 48.4 percent of respondents expect to place orders for power units, a slight rise from the four-quarter moving average of 47.9 percent. This is the first positive comparison to the moving average this year, CKCVR says.

The percent of the planned orders of power units designated for added capacity is up to 32.3 percent from the second quarter's 23 percent. CKCVR believes this is based on the hope companies have for added business as the economy starts to improve.

Those planning to place orders for trailers increased to 39.1 percent, a slight improvement from 38.5 percent in the second quarter.

Complete survey results are reported in the Q3 2009 Fleet Sentiment Report (www.ckcvr.com/fleetsentiment.html), a quarterly report of CK Commercial Vehicle Research.

CK Commercial Vehicle Research (CKCVR) is a business of CK Marketing & Communications located in Columbus, Ohio. CKCVR surveys fleet advisors representing a mix of large, medium and small for-hire, private and government commercial vehicle fleet operations.