A reflection of continued softness in the commercial market and downward pressure on demand, new registrations for commercial vehicles during the third quarter were down 38.7 percent from the 2008 period
, according to the September issue of Polk Commercial Vehicle Solutions' Commercial Vehicle Market Intelligence Report. As a result, Polk has reduced its Index of U.S. Commercial Vehicle Activity for the 2009 calendar year by 9,000 units, with the forecast that 2009 will end at about 323,000 units.

In the June report, Polk had predicted new registrations for 2009 would end at about 332,000 units.

To reach this 323,000 level, the fourth quarter of 2009 would have to show strong numbers at 86,089 units, which would put the fourth quarter down about 20 percent from the fourth quarter of 2008. This would mean a 9.2 percent improvement in new registrations compared to the average sales rate during the nine months of this year.

New vehicle registrations during the third quarter were at 77,189 units, a 4.6 percent drop from the second quarter of 2009. In September, new vehicle registrations slipped 42.1 percent from September 2008. With the exception of Class 4 and Class 6 vehicles, the decline in new registrations in September was greater in each segment than the average decline for the calendar year through September. September marked the lowest level of monthly new registrations since Nov. 1991, when it was at 22,072 units.

"The commercial vehicle market is highly dependent on a good economic environment and construction," the Polk report said. "There needs to be significant improvement in these two areas for the market to return to a more normal level."

On a positive note, used commercial vehicle registrations for the third quarter were up 46.5 percent from 2008, totaling 166,600 units. Used truck activity accounted for 68 percent of commercial vehicle transactions in the third quarter, compared to 49 percent in the year-ago period. "The market for used commercial equipment, as indicated by the level of used vehicle transactions remains near historical highs," the report said.