Rush Enterprises (NASDAQ:RUSHB) reported third-quarter financial results on Wednesday. The transcript from the company’s third-quarter earnings call has been provided below.
This transcript is brought to you by Benzinga APIs. For real-time access to our entire catalog, please visit https://www.benzinga.com/apis/ for a consultation.
View the webcast at https://edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/exur5spz/
Summary
Rush Enterprises reported a strong third quarter with revenue of $2.1 billion, an increase of 12.4% from the previous year, and net income of $78 million, up 18.2%.
The company completed a 50% investment in MCT Companies, entering the refrigerated transportation space, and reported parts, service, and collision center revenue of $680 million, contributing to 63% of total gross profit.
Rush Enterprises sold 3,880 new Class 8 trucks, up 24.4%, and 3,265 medium-duty vehicles, up 9.6%, outperforming market growth. Used truck sales also increased by 5.5%.
The company is focused on serving customers across the vehicle lifecycle, enhancing its total solution strategy through aftermarket services and operational efficiency.
Regulatory uncertainty regarding EPA’s 2027 emission rules affects new order activity and customer behavior, but underlying demand remains healthy.
Management expressed confidence in future demand, citing high fleet age and strong replacement demand, while acknowledging potential supply chain constraints and regulatory impacts.
The company repurchased $10.3 million of its stock, paid $16.4 million in dividends, and ended the quarter with $226 million in cash.
Full Transcript
OPERATOR
Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Rush Enterprises third quarter 2026 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speakers’ presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising that your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again.
Please be advised that today’s conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Rusty Rush, CEO, President, Chairman of the Board. Please go ahead.
Rusty Rush (Chief Executive Officer, President and Chairman of the Board)
Well, good morning and thank you for joining us for our third quarter 2026 earnings call. With me this morning are Steve Keller, our Chief Financial Officer, Jody Pollard, our Chief Operating Officer, Jay Hazelwood, our Vice President and Controller, and Michael Goldstone, our Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. Before we get started, I’ll turn it over to Steve for forward-looking statements.
Steve Keller (Chief Financial Officer)
Certain statements we will make today are considered forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Because these statements include risks and uncertainties, our actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed are in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025, and in our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Rusty Rush (Chief Executive Officer, President and Chairman of the Board)
Thanks, Steve. We had a strong third quarter. Revenue was approximately $2.1 billion, up 12.4% from a year ago, and net income was $78 million, $0.65 diluted share, up 18.2% from a year ago. We also declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.14 per share. The biggest drivers this quarter were higher new truck deliveries and improving aftermarket activity. Rate conditions have continued to get better following a prolonged downturn, and we’re encouraged by what we’re seeing as we move through the fourth quarter.
The quarter also demonstrates the value of the diversified business we built. We serve a broad range of customers across multiple parts of the commercial vehicle market, giving us different avenues for growth as conditions improve. During the quarter, we completed our 50% investment in MCT Companies, giving us a meaningful entry into the refrigerated transportation space. MCT operates 17 full-service dealerships and three mobile service locations across six states. This is a great strategic fit and another step forward, providing customers with more of the products and services they need to operate their fleets. Parts, service and collision center revenue was approximately $680 million, up 5.8%, and aftermarket operations generated nearly 63% of our total gross profit.
Excuse me, our production ratio was 128.3%. Demand improved across our customer base, with particularly good growth in energy and wholesale. We also saw encouraging improvement among smaller local customers. We expect that momentum to continue, allowing for normal seasonality. Trucks we’re delivering from our backlog should also help create additional parts and service opportunities. At the same time, we’re focused on operating efficiently and capturing more of our local customers.
Maintenance and repair business. Class 8 was particularly strong. We sold 3,880 new Class 8 trucks in the U.S., up 24.4% compared with industry growth of just over 10%. That brought our Class 8 market share to 6.5%. Over-the-road customers drove much of that growth, as improving freight rates and the need to replace older equipment supported demand. Our backlog gives us good visibility into a strong fourth quarter and first quarter of next year, although supply constraints could affect the timing of some deliveries.
The bigger question right now is new order activity. Quoting and orders have slowed as customers wait for clarity around the EPA’s 2027 emission rules and, ultimately, manufacturers’ pricing. We view that largely as just a timing issue. Underlying demand remains healthy, and we expect ordering activity to improve once customers have the information they need to make replacement decisions. Medium-duty also performed well. We sold 3,265 Class 4 through 7 vehicles in the U.S., up 9.6%, while the overall market was essentially flat. Several large fleets that had deferred purchases earlier in the year took delivery during the quarter, and our Ready-to-Roll inventory helped us serve customers as manufacturer capacity tightened. We remain positive about medium-duty demand going into early 2027. We added inventory during the quarter to help manage possible production constraints, which should put us in a good position to respond to customers who need equipment quickly.
Used truck demand was also solid. We sold 1,913 used commercial vehicles, up 5.5% over last year, with demand particularly strong among smaller fleets. Limited new truck availability and expected increases in new vehicle prices continue to make used equipment an attractive alternative for many customers. Our leasing and rental business also had a good quarter. Revenue was $98.2 million, up 5.3%, driven by improved rental utilization along with continued growth in full-service leasing and contract maintenance. We expect rental demand to remain healthy next year as some customers consider alternatives to buying higher-priced new vehicles.
Overall, I’m pleased with how the business performed this quarter. We generated strong growth, gained share in both Class 8 and medium-duty, saw continued improvement in aftermarket demand, and maintained a very strong financial position. During the quarter, we repurchased $10.3 million of our stock, paid $16.4 million in dividends, and ended September with $226 million in cash and cash flows. Going forward, our focus remains pretty straightforward: serve our customers well, make it easier for them to do business with Rush, and continue investing where we see attractive opportunities. That’s what our total solution strategy is about. We want to support customers across the life of the vehicle, from the initial purchase through parts and service, technology, leasing, rental and other solutions. The more effectively we do that, the more valuable those relationships become for both our customers and Rush.
Finally, I want to thank our employees. Their hard work and commitment to our customers are what make these results possible, and I appreciate everything they do for Rush Enterprises. With that, I’ll take the questions.
OPERATOR
Thank you. At this time, we will conduct the question-and-answer session. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from the line of Andrew Obin. Your line is now open.
Andrew Obin (Analyst at Bank of America)
Good morning. Rusty, maybe you can just— We talked about it, Rusty. Steve, maybe we can talk about just regulatory uncertainty and how it impacts your customer behavior going into ’27. Thank you.
Rusty Rush (Chief Executive Officer, President and Chairman of the Board)
Sure, Andrew. Well, it’s a great question, Andrew. I could probably ramble on for 20 minutes talking about it, but there’s no question that getting regulatory answers from the EPA is critical for manufacturers and customers alike. Right? And most people, you may remember, I’m going to try to make this as short as I can. You know, the EPA came out and gave a draft back in July about what the changes they were making to the 2027 January 1 rule. Basically, they said they were going to allow non-conformance penalties if you chose that.
Which means you could carry the old engine that we had and still sell it, but there would be a penalty. Heavy-duty was around 6,700, medium around 4,400 plus FET on the heavy-duty engine. Or you could bring on your new technology which would be, you know, meet the 35 milligrams, whatever it is, NOx, if the law’s been written for a while in doing that, you could also use credits to buy that down from 0.65. Okay. 2.35. Okay. So you really had different choices.
They got rid of the warranties, they said, because they’re supposed to be a 10-year warranty on aftertreatment. And it was going to go back to the regular one-year standard warranty on aftertreatment, not 10 years. And also some other provisions inside that really weren’t quite as expensive but some other provisions that they had out there. Now that’s a draft. So it was up for review, a commentary period. All the comments came back. We kept hearing we’re going to get the final decree in November. Now in the last couple weeks I’m hearing that we’re not going to get it in November. There’s been some things that have gone on, I think in the EPA that are going to delay it and possibly, I don’t know if it was for a fact but possibly we’re going to be told just to work off a draft. We’ll get the final decree out in January, February, but it’s got to go in the first of January.
So it’s kind of, you know, it’s kind of up in the air as to exactly is that really is going to stay the same? Are they going to make adjustments? Will they make NCPs up or down? We don’t know. Okay. But you know you’re going to have to go off the assumptions that the draft will stay the same, I believe unless they do come up with a final decree. That being said, all the manufacturers are taking different paths and that’s fluid. Also I do know that Paccar is all in on NCPs. I know that Cummins is in on NCPs through the end of September rolling in new technology. International, go with NCPs for probably four months and then roll into the new technology through the summer. Freightliner, not going to do that. Freightliner is going with the new technology right out of the bat, right out of the chute.
Volvo I feel sure. I know they got new technology. I think they might have a mix. So my point to you would be that it’s all different across the board. I’ve never seen a law. I’m pretty old, right. In fact I’m really old. So I’ve never seen an EPA law or decree where it wasn’t the same for everybody on one particular date. So it’s sort of in some ways punted the full implementation of the 1-1-27 EPA law to where it’s so spread out some will come in on January 1, some may not do it until the following year.
You don’t know NCPs. There’s no close on the date on it, but it would probably go up a rather large amount in January 1st of 28. So I would imagine that it will allow. From a customer perspective, I don’t believe we’ve had time to truly test these engines. That’s my personal belief. So I do believe it gives customers a chance to not have to roll right into this new technology because everybody’s aftertreatment is a little bit different. Okay. I could talk forever. Okay. All the manufacturers are going about it a little bit different. So I think from a customer perspective, I would be, you know, leaning towards wanting to pay some NCPs.
That’s my personal opinion, and roll in and test the new technology. Before I go all into the pool, you know, let’s dive into the shallow end and not the deep end. Right. Let’s ease our way into it. If I’m a customer, that’s how I’d approach it. But I’m not a customer, I’m just a dealer, so. But I’ve talked to many of them. Obviously I just came back from ATA and that’s definitely how a few of them talk now. I’m sure some will go in with the proper assurances, but, you know, the manufacturers we represent are going to ease into the pool would be the best way for me to tell you, you know, as I just went through, so.
But it’s all over the board too and with still uncertainty driven by our great government that can’t seem to write a final decree. But I know there’s a lot of legal ramifications. They have to be very careful with the changes. They’ve tried to make it easier for customers by allowing NCPs. Most customers would prefer that and then test. I don’t believe customers have been given enough time. I know they haven’t with anybody’s technology on the aftertreatment to test it.
Most folks want to run this stuff for over a year plus before they roll it into their fleet because we’ve seen throughout history that, you know, new technology is not always running just right, right out of the gate. Right. There are adjustments that have to be made and sometimes there can be major adjustments. I mean, I go back to something that’s as simple as going to DEF, which we did in 2010. Okay. When we went to, you know, the blue, to the DEF, like Europe, SCR technology.
I’m going to tell you, there were clogged particulate filters all over this country. Okay. Traps and stuff. Our shops were full of these kinds of things as we rolled into that. Even something that had been running for years in Europe, we had issues with implementing here in the U.S. So, you know, people remember those scars. So they would, in my mind, prefer to roll into it, but I’m done. Like I said, I could talk forever about it. And you know, you’ve got my opinions.
They may not be everybody’s, but they’re mine. And so that’s, you know, trying the lay of the land, which is different depending on who you’re talking to. And we’re waiting to hear. I mean, it would be great if we could at least get a final decree because no one likes working off a draft. And then you get stuff on order and things happen and the decree comes out. It can get a little messy in my mind if we don’t get a decree out.
Andrew Obin (Analyst at Bank of America)
Thank you, Rusty. No, great. I appreciate your comprehensive answer. And maybe another question is on any potential disruptions to OEM’s ability to ship trucks to you, given potential supply chain constraints over the next couple of quarters, how that thinking has evolved. And what do you think, given that both shipments and orders will look like over the next couple of months? Thank you.
Rusty Rush (Chief Executive Officer, President and Chairman of the Board)
Sure. That’s a good question. Anytime you ramp up like these manufacturers have, some of these folks have had six to eight increases or more throughout the year now as they’ve ramped slowly up. I know both my manufacturers are running at full tilt. Okay, well, what happens is you put a big strain on the supply base, and it’s not always just the number one supply base. It’s not your tier one; it’s your tier two and tier three suppliers that you’re asking to add people, add all these resources, and ramp up for a big six-month period.
But then you can’t guarantee them, because the Class 8 truck market is always what it is. It’s a little volatile. And so you’re asking them to ramp up 80%. Well, then you can’t guarantee and ramp down. And so then they gotta—it’s about hiring people, training people, getting going and giving them. So it does put a strain. So what I’m saying is it really is on that tier two, tier three. There are some cases of tier one—I’m not going to get specific—that have popped up here in the last couple weeks that are going to make some of these deliveries get stretched out. And it’s not one OEM; it’s all OEMs that are affected. Okay, so don’t let—I think some people make it—but no, it’s the OEMs we represent; it’s the ones we don’t represent. So what happens is you’re trying to keep the lines running good.
And what happens is you’re short what I call tier two, tier three. You’re short this gauge, you’re short this lens or something. Well, you’re not gonna just stop the truck and leave it on the line. You’re gonna take it up to make sure everything’s fine, get it tested, and put it in a back lot till you get that piece. Then you’re gonna go put it on there. So you gotta touch the vehicle two or three times. And when that happens, it happens. This is nothing unique.
This happens every time you have this big surge in manufacturing and order activity. So it does cramp the supply; it does slow down the deliveries. I’ve got numbers of what my Q4 should be, but I’m not gonna guarantee it because some of it could get delayed into Q1. So I think that’s why we feel pretty good about Q4 and Q1. Now, I can’t tell you much about Q2 because I don’t think anybody—no OEM—has much backlog. I got you. We all got a little past, you know, with the new engine stuff. So I feel—but remember, we’re a dealer, so we’re on the tail of the dog. So we’re not manufacturing. We’re delivering to customers, which typically takes 30 to 90 to 128 days, depending on if it’s over the highway or goes into vocational businesses and the bodies and things like that.
So that’s why I can fairly confidently say I feel good about Q4 and Q1—Q2 to be known. But remember, we’ve had six months of backlog, and it’s not—and so it’s going down every day because intake is not going to be super strong. But as it goes down and as we get clarity on emissions and we get clarity on pricing—because there’s inflationary pieces inside of this besides engines; it’s not all just engines—OEMs and customers, all dealers, of course, including me, but really there will be a meeting of the minds on pricing.
But when I told you about all those different technologies on the new stuff, it’s really interesting right now because the different technologies—I’m jumping out further than your question, by the way—the different technologies have different cost factors to them, and different OEMs are in different positions coming out of tariffs and stuff. It is really a pretty complex game out there right now. I know it’s going to get sorted out as backlogs decrease.
We’ll get sorted out because there is demand out there. I know there’s demand for next year. I’ve talked to customers. It’s just this fall we’re in of clarity on emissions and clarity on future pricing. Right. But it’ll get sorted out here in the next 60 days and we’ll get back to normal. There could be a small blip for my back half of Q1 and something Q2, but it will get sorted out because the demand is there. The age of the fleet is up. So regardless about growth, the replacement demand is still there going into next year, which is why I think you see acts out there—I don’t know, they’re up—like if it’s 10% or something; I don’t have it in front of me right now. But it is up 8–10% there now, subject to change, of course. But we’ll start the year off in my mind with a better Q1—because that’s deliveries—than what we did last year. So I know I’m going past your question, but yes, back to your question: it will get stretched out due to supply constraints.
They will get built. In my mind, I don’t see anything that’s going to blow it all up. But you’re also fighting the law, which basically means the engine has to get built prior to December 31st if you’re using old technology—or should I say, I think it goes down to you have to set the crank in the block. That’s how it really reads. But you will build old engines into January. There’s a 5% piece that the government put in their decree. I know I’m getting too deep, but we will build old engines into January. So if you look at it, there’s still another, what, a little less than three months of building old engines.
Right. But the supply piece to your first question is going to stretch it out a little bit, which I’m fine with. Let’s just get it all delivered. I don’t look for anybody to not take their equipment. The demand is there. It’s just a matter of getting it all built, which just stretches out the timing issue on that piece of it. You bet. You probably may be confusing even if it’s comprehensive.
OPERATOR
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Brady Liers of Stevens. Your line is now open.
Brady Liers (Analyst at Stevens)
Great, thanks. Good morning, Rusty. Thanks for taking our questions. You know, parts and service revenue growth was really strong this quarter. Can you just talk about some of the drivers of that growth? Was that mostly kind of your larger over-the-road accounts? Are you also seeing strength from your smaller, unassigned accounts too? And then just any how sustainable you think this growth is into 2027?
Rusty Rush (Chief Executive Officer, President and Chairman of the Board)
Right. Well, first, I do believe it is sustainable. I don’t look for it to be dramatic, but it’s nice to be even gradual good growth. I would tell you national account growth was there, but also smaller accounts didn’t decline as dramatically as they have been the last couple years. They were starting to flatten out a little bit, which is nice to see. That means you’re starting to get to the bottom of that piece of your business because that is typically your more profitable piece.
But from a mix perspective, what growth we had was more in the national account piece. And it maybe wasn’t as strong as it had been, but it was there. I could tell you at the end of the quarter, we measure things in per day—how much gross profit per day we produce in our shops—and August and September, August being the best month of the year and September being the second-best month of the year from a per-day average. So that was encouraging. We’ll see. Remember though, in Q4 we do have seasonality; we do have holidays. Q4 is always the toughest, especially November and December as we roll into it, just because there’s less working days.
We have basically three less working days, and a working day to us is worth three-plus million dollars a day in gross profit. So we will be battling that in Q4. We always do. Some years it’s two; this year it’s three. The way we look at it, we strip out the holidays. So when you put figures of holidays in, that will be a seasonality battle. But that’s every year. So what you’re really hoping for is, like you said, underlying good, strong growth, understanding seasonality—that happens every year.
But know that underlying growth is strong and solid, and for right now it appears to be that way. Also, we’re helped by the delivery of vehicles. Anytime we’re delivering more new vehicles, there is work, especially in our vocational businesses, where we add equipment or get them prepared—pre-deliver them, add stuff, sticker them—even on over-the-road business. There’s still a little bit that goes with it of upfitting that we do to get trucks ready to go to the end user. So that’s always helpful too. So it looks like we will still maintain that with a gradually improving customer base and more trucks to deliver, which will create more gross profit from that perspective for parts and service.
Brady Liers (Analyst at Stevens)
That all makes sense. Thanks for all the detail there. Maybe just lastly on used truck sales—you know, they stepped up nicely in the third quarter. How are you thinking about used truck sales, especially just going back to Andrew’s question earlier about the regulatory uncertainty? Are you seeing any tailwinds to used truck sales from that, or just any thoughts into 27?
Rusty Rush (Chief Executive Officer, President and Chairman of the Board)
Sure, yeah. Without question. We’re saying, you know, used is solid. Right. Where are we managing our inventories? Well, we’re actually, I think because the used market’s been a little better, some customers are disposing of more themselves and we’re not taking as large a fleet trade packages as we have in the past. Now when it’s bad, they always want you to take them. Right. When it’s good, they like to sell them themselves. Not all the time, but it does—you see that trend inside of it.
So we’re going to maintain solid used truck results, I believe—steady as it goes. Should I say stable? No big—you know, sometimes used is the one thing in the world it’ll bite you. But I don’t see any bite zones coming in the future for the next few quarters and I believe it’ll still be solid next year. Just remember with these new truck pricing going, what’s fixing to happen, you’re just increasing the spread that helps used trucks maintain value.
When new truck prices go up, we’re still not anywhere close to back to the percentages that we were, oh, three or four, five years ago because new truck prices have shot up 30, 30, 40% in the last five or six years and used truck values haven’t. So percentage wise, we’re still way under. If you go back historical and go into the last decade or other decades, we’re percentage wise still bigger gap than ever. So I don’t see any big hit in used coming right now, my friend. I expect them to stay good, strong. I’m not going to sit here and say—I know I’ve read where some folks, big rental/leasing companies, oh, they’ll be up 10% next year, you know, like for like. I’m not going to say that, but I can see them up a little bit and make this strong, you know, and good and solid in my mind. But you know, let’s see. I mean, if some of these technologies didn’t work out as well, and it’s aftertreatment—there’s more to it than just the after.
There’s been some hardware changes inside some of these units that are going to come out. If you had something like that happen, you could see used truck values shoot up. Okay. But I’m not here to predict that or say that. So my point being they should hold and be good and we should have strong steady-as-it-goes. If we’ve got any issue, it’s getting used trucks right now. Okay. You know, we’ve got buyers out there. We’re buying used trucks besides trading for used trucks too. So if there’s any issue right now, like I said, it’s just having the right good enough inventory, but we’re managing it well. There’s been times in my life we’ve had, you know, when you’re in a different position.
So I feel pretty good about where we’re at. Always. Thank you, sir.
OPERATOR
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Cole Cousins of Wolfe Research. Your line is now open.
Cole Cousins (Analyst at Wolfe Research)
Hey guys, it sounds like outside of EPA uncertainty, you believe demand is still pretty strong coming out of ATA. What gives you the confidence that this order lull is temporary heading into 2027?
Rusty Rush (Chief Executive Officer, President and Chairman of the Board)
What gave it to me? Because people still said they had demand. Now remember, they’re taking a lot of trucks. Okay. It’s interesting. Besides all the diversity in people’s choices of technology which drives different pricing from the OEMs, besides all that, okay, they’re taking a lot of trucks right now and they know that—customers know I’m always wide open about everything—customers know that they don’t have a backlog next year, so they’re going to push back on pricing for a bit.
But they’re taking all these trucks in the back half of the year. We’re building at an extremely high rate right now. We really are. Well, those trucks have to be in service, which means they have to out-service other trucks if they’re replacement. So they have to take trucks out of service, put trucks in service, and that takes a little time for them too. It’s not like, you know, going to the races, jumping out of one truck into the next one. There’s a little more to it than that because you got to get the other truck ready for disposal, which means you got to fix it up. The used truck—the new truck needs to be ready to go on the road.
So that takes them a little time. I know that people said they have strong demand, but they’re not going to be in a really big hurry. I don’t see that. I’m not saying that’s a deal. That’s just not what I see. I talk to a lot of people. It will right up front. I’m sure that as we get closer to that time frame—look, this industry at times, I’ve seen three or four weeks of real true backlog in it before. So in the just-in-time world we’ve created over the last decades, many few decades, people can ramp up and get ready and deliver pretty quick.
So I think as they roll all this in, they still have a lot to buy next year. I saw some capex budgets that were talked about. It just may not be smooth as you go because of these other issues. So that’s what gives me the confidence. Plus I look at the age of the fleet and it’s up higher. I talk to people that their fleet—if they wanted X, it’s X—you know, it’s up, you know, almost a year higher than what they like. Which, what that leads to, higher maintenance in there that they’re paying, right. And they want to—unless, you know, not as, you know, not as reliable. Less reliability the older your fleet is. So it’s there, you know, and they’re slowly—even though we—I do believe there’s legs.
Let’s look at our—I’m talking about the over-the-road business. I look for vocational to be good next year, if not better than this year. It’s been steady as it goes, but the over-the-road is still 70% of what’s going on. And while, you know, we know what happened going back to last January, spot rates shot up 30, 35 at one time. They peaked at around 50 up year over year. They leveled about down in the 30s range year over year. But people started rolling their contract rates.
People that have more, you know, dedicated stuff—it takes longer to roll it in if you’re not. We got more dedicated—depends on who you’re talking about. But I still believe—and it’s the real, the real cause—by constraint of, what, drivers and things like that. It was supply side. It wasn’t demand, freight side driven. It was supply. I do think the economy still seems to be—I can’t believe how well the economy’s weathered all this crap, the war, Iran, the fuel prices and everything else. But the economy continues to show through somehow. So I do believe still we’re eventually going to get some demand help drive it.
Right now it’s been—if you remember a year ago the government was cracking down on non-compliant drivers and this and that—all these supply side things. So all this has been driven by supply side. I still think there’s going to be some legs for some demand, okay, coming next year. Just my novice opinion. So you know, you add that in. Folks haven’t been really able to grow a lot because there’s a lot of driver cost. You’re seeing some of the releases—they’re better than what they were. But there’s still a lot of cost, right. So there’s still—even though they’re getting better freight rates, they’re spending a lot of it. Just most people are up 10% in driver pay, right. And plus the other cost of the equipment and things like that. So I just believe—it will keep pressure on the supply side.
But I believe demand’s coming and people wanted vehicles. It’s just a matter—we’re taking a lot right now. I need to get clarity on pricing and technology and I’m gonna buy a lot of trucks, okay, cause I need to. Simple as that. Even though I don’t make it a simple answer.
Cole Cousins (Analyst at Wolfe Research)
That’s super helpful, Rusty. And I guess maybe just a question on margins. You guys had strong revenue growth in both commercial vehicle and aftermarket sales, but margins are still down year over year. I’m assuming there’s some mix headwinds in there, but can you expand on what’s—what’s driving that?
Rusty Rush (Chief Executive Officer, President and Chairman of the Board)
It’s—I would tell you, look, margins this quarter from a truck perspective were one-tenth less than two of the last three quarters. So I didn’t—to me they were kind of flat. So I hear you. They were a hair higher. They were in the eight still. Okay. It was eight—it was 8.1 and it was, you know, at one time was 8.5 back a year ago or so. And really, truly, it’s a mix. You know, we’re getting more fleet business. Okay. You know, a small guy comes in, always a little later.
I’m hoping and expecting to maybe start seeing some improvement. I think our mix is going to get a little better as I look at it going into Q4. I need to see—I got to make sure what gets delivered on time and what doesn’t. Okay. I don’t see margins getting any less. Sure. And I see, you know, there’s some upside to truck margins in my mind in the next couple quarters. Okay. When it comes to aftermarket, our parts business grew better than our service business. And you know, your service margins are well more than double what your—what your parts margins are. Right. So we were on ag—we were only off one quarter over quarter. We were off one. We weren’t as good as we were a year ago, that’s for sure. We’re, you know, a percent off, but pretty similar to where we have been. And it’s mainly a mix perspective with, you know, better growth in parts than we have in service.
So that would be my best answer. And again, also on that, remember, I’m doing—when I said earlier, I said my growth was in the national account fleet business. Well, that’s not as good a margin as a small person. Right. So, you know, again, it’s more of a mix thing. And I for sure believe we can get it back. It’s just been—but I’ll take it. Like I told somebody the other day, said, well, gosh, you know, why would you want to grow—why would I want to grow that? Because if the small guys were hurting worse, I got to get growth somewhere.
But it might come at a little bit less margin. Right. And that’s really what it’s about. It’s a parts and service mix and it’s a customer mix kind of thing. But when the small guy comes back, you’ll see those margins get back up.
Cole Cousins (Analyst at Wolfe Research)
That’s helpful. And just one quick follow-up on the supplier delays—can you—where is the actual bottleneck, and is the expectation that that should start to abate as we enter 2027, or do you see this being—like, when does this end?
Rusty Rush (Chief Executive Officer, President and Chairman of the Board)
Well, that all depends on demand. Okay. The bottleneck is across the board, as I said in Tier 2 and Tier 3, that these OEMs have, well, more 1,000-plus trucks that are all really built except for two little parts or something. Right. And they’re parked out back. So that bottleneck, it’s across the board. It’s not one particular thing. There’s only one Tier 1 thing that I’ve seen in the last few weeks. And I think people are trying to work their way through it.
I’m not going to get specific about that. So those little things will get… unless we get some orders, it’ll be no problem come February. But I do expect us to start getting… but that’s still a ways off. As I said, I walk through, my customers are not in a big hurry to take Q1 trucks. They’re in servicing all these trucks. I know people that some people, their orders, 50% of what they bought this year are coming in Q4. Well, that means they’re going to end service through Q1 and they’ll buy and get trucks on delivery for Q2.
That’ll happen. But that’s still ways off. Okay. And with all the uncertainties I talked about, I got time they’ll sell themselves because I know the OEMs don’t have any big backlogs next year. Now, they better be careful. I would tell a customer that I do expect acceleration. You know, I can give you reasons why you shouldn’t hold off, but I can’t. You know, it’s not my money to spend, it’s theirs. But you got to be careful because I do think when it hits, it’s going to hit hard, fast and big.
Right. I think when orders pick back up, they’re going to pick back up quickly. Okay. Because some people aren’t going to want to miss. Okay. And have what happened in the back half of this year? Well, not everybody got everything they wanted the back half of this year, you know, especially, you know, your smaller customers. So it’ll happen. It’s just a timing thing. I have confidence it will happen. The people’s needs. If someone asked me a minute ago, was there a lot of orders given out at ATA? Not that I’m aware of. But I do know there was a lot of talk, a lot of talk about demand that’s needed, you know, demand out there. But you know, there’s time in their mind because they got so much coming year-end this back part of this year in service. So, you know, I’ll just…
It could be a slight little bubble as we transition to new technology, but it’s not going to be a big one and it won’t last long. I have confidence in that. Okay. Thanks, Rusty. I’ll turn it back. You bet.
OPERATOR
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Avi Yaroslav of UBS.
Avi Yaroslav (Analyst at UBS)
Hey. Thank you. Good morning.
Rusty Rush (Chief Executive Officer, President and Chairman of the Board)
Good morning.
Avi Yaroslav (Analyst at UBS)
So just in trying to think about what Q1 could look like. Right. So it sounds like as long as the engine is produced, even for the most part by December 31st, that it’s not going to get an NCP in 2027. So it sounds like some of the supply bottlenecks are kind of downstream of engines. So are you thinking that the OEMs are just going to stock up on as many engines as possible and kind of, what do you think the spillover into Q1 could look like?
Rusty Rush (Chief Executive Officer, President and Chairman of the Board)
Well, if they could, they would, but there are regulations as to how they could do that. I can remember in the old days when they would have warehouses full. We’re a little more sophisticated than 40 years ago. Okay. It’s a little harder to do. The world we live in now used to manufacturers would stack them up big, right? But remember, they don’t operate… Let’s go back. They don’t operate that way. Everything’s just in time. People don’t operate like they used to.
They don’t have warehouses of parts and stuff when the manufacturers don’t. So. But there is, I think, a 5% carry rule. It’s just a matter if they can get them built. You know, I’m not sure, I don’t want to speak for everybody where they are, but I expect everybody to build into January. I don’t know if that’s three weeks, two weeks, four weeks, probably three or four weeks into January if they can get the engines. And I’m not, you know, I can’t answer that question. As I said, the old rule, and I think it still is, is crank’s got to be laid in the engine by December 31st and not totally complete.
The crank’s got to be in the block. So, you know, I would imagine OEMs, some for sure, will want to carry as many as they can legally, and that’s what they’ll do. So, you know, that would tell you, you know, if you’re going to have some already online trucks. And remember, just because the manufacturer builds 200 trucks a day, he’s probably got a thousand trucks going through there, right? They don’t build them in one day or more. So you got all that going through. There’s a week plus that’s already in the factory. Then you got a 5% carry. So that gets you, you know, what’s a month, 8% or something, you know, do 12, 8 and a half percent.
So that gets you close to about three to four weeks of build in the J. And I would imagine that would be the goal of most of them. You have to ask them, I’m sure that’s their business, but that’d be my guess. So, you know, that gets you three, four weeks in January and then we’re going to go to whatever. We’re either going to go to NCPs. And by the way, if you’re a customer, all you’re going to do is pay an NCP plus whatever for your model and inflation. And that’s the part that’s being negotiated out right now. Okay. So you know what the NCP is. We know costs have risen, so it’s just finding that little piece. So that’s why I don’t see, especially for folks that are going to be using NCPs, I do not see a big, you know, stoppage or some big block in the road to get it done.
There could be a little something, but it’ll just, you know, it’ll come to a cost factor. But it’s real simple to figure out because the NCP is what the NCP is. The only problem is we’re working on a draft. Okay. And you gotta hope it stays the same. So it does get a little confusing there. So again, I would… But remember, we’re on the tail of the dog. So I expect us to have a solid Q1, but I need to wait and see what gets built and delivered in the fourth quarter because of all this, you know, sub-tier supply issues. Right. So I don’t have clarity as to exactly how everything falls out. I feel pretty good about both quarters, you know, but I’m just not sure. So I feel good about Q4, I feel decent good about Q1, Q2, I’ll have to get to.
But we got time. So as they work, sort out all these issues I keep repeating myself about and talking about right now. But that’s, you know, that’s where we’re at. That’s truly where we’re at. So I’m not going to try to quantify it because I don’t know about shortages and things. If stuff gets delayed, you know, a couple weeks here or there is, you know, into what, you know, where it goes. What, you know, does it go into vocational, does it go here, does it go there?
It’ll all be all right.
Avi Yaroslav (Analyst at UBS)
Okay, appreciate that. Yeah. I mean it sounds like if they can keep building, you know, another three to four weeks into January, then that could take, you know, retail sales into pretty much through February, pretty
Rusty Rush (Chief Executive Officer, President and Chairman of the Board)
much through first quarter. That takes you pretty much through Q1. Okay. And then there I’ve got, I got some uncertainty in Q2, but I’ve still got plenty of time. Okay. Because we gotta set up pricing and technology here real quick and we’ll get that sorted out the next 60 days. I’m confident. Okay I’m telling you, there’s going to be demand. I believe there will be demand. I don’t look for demand to go away. It’ll just got this, these uncertainties, man. And it’ll get itself sorted out. It always does.
Avi Yaroslav (Analyst at UBS)
All right. On this pricing dynamic. So if I’m understanding correctly, it sounds kind of like the OEM’s kind of underlying core pricing to cover costs and whatnot. Is that somewhat dependent on what the final NCP is going to look like? Is it thinking of it as like a maximum price that can be absorbed for next year and just question of whether part of that goes to their margins or is just passed through?
Rusty Rush (Chief Executive Officer, President and Chairman of the Board)
Well, from what I hear, look, we know that we’ve had some inflation, more than the Fed wants, right? Well, it happens in the truck business, truck world too. Manufacturers, they’ve been absorbing, you can see margins and stuff on… you know, it’s not hard to go find them. Even whether it’s even the Europeans have spun off their truck divisions, it’s really easy to go find what truck margins are. So I expect, you know, manufacturers, I think, are not trying to be anything like gouging or anything.
They’re trying to recover some costs plus NCP. Or if you’re doing new technology, who knows what it costs? Okay, only you do. So. But if you’re going down the NCP route to begin with, which both of my manufacturers are, you’re going to just have to bet on the draft. And then it’s trying to recover the inflationary pressures you’ve had. Right. And cover your increased cost. And that gets you to the number you’re supposed to be at. And that’s where we will get to.
It just takes a little time, you know, validation of what those costs really are outside of NCPs. And if everybody gets comfortable, I’m not going to get into the numbers and stuff with… I really don’t want to. But at the same time, it’s pretty simple. You got an NCP, it’s NCP plus recovering what your increased costs are. I don’t think people are looking for big margins going into the year to begin with. It’s not like, you know, you know you’re going to have demand, but you don’t have it now.
So you need to go build a backlog. Then you can work on it in the back half of the backlog. But right now, people did work on the back half of the backlog this year, I can tell you. But that was back in June and July when they were building it. Okay. That will eventually happen again when we get the demand back for the new, you know, new technology and the new pricing and stuff up front. Manufacturers will be just trying to recover. If they went down NCP, whatever the NCP is, plus their, you know, increased cost.
I think that’s what I’m seeing out there. It’s just that again, customers aren’t in a big hurry. You try to get them in a bigger hurry, they’re not. They’re taking so many trucks. I’ve gone over and over this right now and that’s my take on it. Hell, I could be wrong, but I don’t think I am. So I’m… where we’re at. We’re just in this little space right now. I expect everything to sort itself out the next 60 days is all I can tell you.
Avi Yaroslav (Analyst at UBS)
All right. And just want to circle back on the parts and service business. So we were hearing over the last couple of months that, you know, some of the spike in operating costs put some pressure on demand there just with some strain on budgets. Doesn’t look like that was something that showed up in your numbers in Q3. Do you think that was a factor in the quarter for your business or we could have seen a stronger improvement had the costs, fuel and driver costs not spiked as they had.
Or is this maybe an unrestrained kind of quarter?
Tim
Yeah, I would tell you what, we feel it. We—I said one of the things when I said, you know, margins are not as high as they were, say, a year ago. They’re in line with where they were the last quarter or two. Real close. Part of that was mix and part of it was competitive pressures. To your comment, right, you know, people were still really tight because especially the smaller guys that may not get all their fuel surcharges, they were having to spend more money on fuel, right.
So they’re having to watch their maintenance and their repair budgets a lot tighter. Same thing we’ve been dealing with for three years in the freight recession. Then you get all this fuel spike and it adds more pressure into it. It’s not just one thing. But yes, we know all the costs are up. You can see it inside the earnings releases. Okay. So that’s going to put pressure on all expenditures, right. And especially as you get to the end of the year and people have been out of a lot of their budget, you start seeing it here in Q4 sometimes.
But you know, I’m proud of the team. We went out there. As I said, we continue to grow our national account business with a little less margin. Yeah. But it still, you know, helps support the overall of what we’re trying to accomplish. As I said, August was the best, you know, month we had. When you look at it the way we do, like measuring by the hour, by the day, September was the second best month we had. So those were encouraging signs, right.
So I think there’s still underlying opportunity out there for us—like I know there is, okay. All we did was sort of bottom out. We were really flat—really were flat over a few months. I mean last year, end of this year, it was really flat. But we saw some increased, you know, demand in August and September. I’m not really wanting to put a number on October yet. We got a big week here to get it all figured out. But I feel good that it will be gradually sustainable, right.
And at the same time, you know, we’re going to continue to look for M&A. I’ll tell you that right now. Not nothing big, but lots—maybe put a bunch of singles together out there. But back to your real question. Yeah, the mix was one thing. There are cost pressures that put pressure on margins, right, because everybody’s out there in the marketplace, you know, going after it. So it’s a lot of things, right. But guess what? We performed—in my mind we performed as well as anybody in this environment that we were in. Still on the parts and service side, I’m scraping the truck side all the way from parts and service side. So we’ve been performing and continue to perform.
We are looking to maybe next year finally get some growth tailwinds. In the last couple years it’s been really difficult. But we are feeling good about the opportunity to grow our parts and service business sequentially better than we have the last couple years. I’m not talking about just straight up growth. I’m talking about good, solid, gradual. Now we got to find what gradual is. You know, hopefully in the mid-singles would be nice—is what we would like to see next year from the same-store perspective.
And I’d be okay with that because that keeps going like that, that direction. I’m not looking for double-digit parts and service same-store growth. I am looking for, you know, mid-singles, maybe upper. We’ll have to see, depending on the territory, which area it is in the country. But overall, I feel good about underlying demand across the board going into next year. Not where we’re at now. Where we’re at in parts and service feels decent. Truck may have a little bubble. It’s gonna be really good—be good in Q4 and Q1—and we’ll sort through these uncertainties. And I feel good about the whole year as a whole. But it won’t be a straight line. It never is a straight line.
You got it.
OPERATOR
Thank you. This concludes the question and answer session. I would now like to turn it back to Rusty Rush for closing remarks.
Rusty Rush (Chief Executive Officer, President and Chairman of the Board)
Well, folks, I appreciate your participation and your listening. This is the longest gap I have between calls because it’ll be middle of February before we talk again. So in closing, I’d like to wish everybody a happy Thanksgiving, a Merry Christmas, a happy New Year, and just overall very happy holidays this year. So enjoy your families, and we will look forward to talking to everybody in mid February. Thank you very much.
OPERATOR
Thank you for your participation in today’s conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect.
Disclaimer: This transcript is provided for informational purposes only. While we strive for accuracy, there may be errors or omissions in this automated transcription. For official company statements and financial information, please refer to the company’s SEC filings and official press releases. Corporate participants’ and analysts’ statements reflect their views as of the date of this call and are subject to change without notice.
© 2026 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
