Strong demand for light- and medium-duty trucks in the 2018 model-year increased order-to-delivery (OTD) times, resulting in widespread upfitter backlogs.
Increased upfitter volume delayed some ship-thru units, impacting the overall order-to-delivery timeframe for both light-duty and medium-duty trucks.
“Even non-complex upfitting along with standard service bodies have higher lead times. As order volume has increased specifically for truck and cargo vans so, too, has upfit demand. Although our upfit partners are ready to hire additional employees to meet the demand many of them are having challenges finding qualified candidates to fill these positions,” said Cindy Gomez, VP of vehicle acquisition for Donlen. “Also, as upfitters open new plant locations, the quality and consistency in the upfit has declined, resulting in a halt in production to correct these issues.”
