Work Truck Solutions (WTS) recently released its 2018 search data for commercial body types.
The company said the data represents more than 1 million searches completed last year on its platform, which serves more than 900 dealerships covering 49 states. This is Work Truck Solutions’ sixth consecutive year tracking commercial buyer interest through active searches on the platform.
Work Truck Solutions’ commercial vehicle platform features its trademarked ‘Vocational Carousel,’ which lets online shoppers scroll through images of specialized work bodies offered by that dealer. When a shopper clicks on the image of a work body, it registers as a search for that body type, plus shows the shopper all of the dealership’s relevant, work-ready inventory.
A sidebar with detailed search criteria allows users to narrow the search for more granular specifications, such as wheelbase, cab-to-axle and roof height. The commercial shopper can then click on a specific vehicle for a deep view of the Vehicle Detail Page. This VDP shows comprehensive details of that specific configuration, including rich product information for both the chassis or van and the customized body or shelving.
The total search volume for body types across Work Truck Solutions’ platform increased more than 50% from 2017, the company said. The 2018 search data reinforces many of the findings of its 2017 body search data published last year. For example, in 2017, service bodies also were the most-searched body type, accounting for a similar 17.27% of total searches, which mirrors the body’s popularity in the commercial market.
Van searches also remained high, WTS said. In 2018 and 2017, van searches, including cut-aways, empty cargo vans and a variety of upfitted vans, accounted for about 35% of all searches. WTS expects 2019 to be another big year for vans, and in January introduced VanBuilder—a new solution that helps dealerships capitalize on van popularity and vocational customizability.
‘The top ten body types tracked in 2017 were similar to 2018 and grew proportionately to the overall increase in searches,” said Kathryn Schifferle, CEO of Work Truck Solutions. “This confirms that overall market demand is stable and reliable. In 2018, however, we saw significant increases in rollbacks (300%) and chippers (200%), as well as passenger vans for commercial use (270%).
“We also added heavy duty body tracking, including hooklifts, water, sewer and mixer bodies among others. This increases the specific data and analytics we provide dealerships, body manufacturers, distributors and OEMs that can be used to predict what stock will move faster in which markets, solving one of the major challenges the commercial industry faces.”
The 10 most-searched body types for 2018 were:
(body type, number of searches, percent of total)
- Service body, 187,122, 17.25%
- Platform body, 112,680, 10.39%
- Empty cargo van, 105,631, 9.74%
- Service utility van, 89,812, 8.28%
- Dump body, 82,183, 7.58%
- Cutaway van, 70,695, 6.52%
- Upfitted cargo van, 54,147, 4.99%
- Contractor body, 39,544, 3.65%
- Cab chassis, 36,809, 3.39%
- Landscape dump, 34,355, 3.17%
