After a single month’s respite in May, new van registrations returned to their falling ways in June, dropping by 2.5% compared to June 2011.

The latest figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) show that new van registrations have now fallen by 10.1% across the year to date, although only by 0.9% on a rolling year (last 12 months) basis.

Bigger Is Better

Of the 22,287 new vans registered in June, more than half (13,323) were in the heaviest weight category, with gross weights between 2.5t and 3.5t. Interestingly, this was the only category to see a rise in registrations last month, rising by 8.1% while the other weight categories fell by as much as 22%.

Van registrations by weight, June 2012 vs June 2011 (courtesy of SMMT)

Heavy News

Once again, truck registrations (goods vehicles > 3.5t) moved in the opposite direction, rising by 14.7% in June compared to June 2011. Truck registrations are now up by 26% on the year to date and 25% on a rolling year basis.

Van and Truck Registrations, 5 years to June 2012 (courtesy of SMMT)

This growth is being driven by sales of rigids, which are more than compensating for falling artic sales to generate overall increases in the >3.5t category:

• 3.5t – 6.0t: +62.5% YTD
• 6.0t – 16t: +45.2% YTD
• >16t rigid: +48.3% YTD
• 2-axle artic: -2.9% YTD
• 3-axle artic: -7.3% YTD

As before, I can only surmise that greater sales of rigids reflect companies’ needs to operate profitably on a slightly smaller scale than before, while tractor unit (artic) sales stagnate in reflection of the state of the wider economy.