Sales of vehicles to commercial fleets from nine manufactures fell 5.5% in December but increased 1.4% in 2017, following a 2.7% increase the prior year, according to Automotive Fleet data.

In December, commercial fleets purchased 62,520 units, including 52,555 pickups, vans, and SUVs (a 7.2% decline from a year ago) as well as 9,965 passenger cars (a 4.7% increase from December of 2016).

In 2017, commercial fleets purchased 682,971 units, including 596,738 in the truck category (a 4.8% increase) and 86,233 passenger cars (a 17.5% decline).

Sales to government fleets from five manufacturers increased 1.2% to 19,930 for the month with truck sales increasing 3.5% to 16,363 and car sales decreasing 7.9% to 3,567. For the year, government sales fell 6.4% to 261,892 with car sales down 4.6% to 48,791 units and truck-based sales down 6.8% to 213,101.

Daily rental sales from nine manufacturers dropped 4.8% to 125,404 for the month with truck sales decreasing 10.5% to 60,661 and car sales increasing 1.2% to 64,743. For the year, government sales fell 12.3% to 1.59 million with car sales down 16.1% to 762,099 units and truck-based sales down 8.4% to 830,281 units.

For all three segments, fleet sales in December fell 4.5% to 207,854 versus a year ago with a 1.2% increase to 78,275 units in car sales and a 7.6% decrease to 129,579 units in truck-based sales.

Year to date, the three fleet segments have fallen 8.1% to 2.53 million with a 15.3% decline in car sales to 897,123 and a 3.7% decline in truck sales to 1.64 million.