Almost two years ago, I conducted a highly unscientific study to work out the likelihood of someone who has a truck (I only found one actual ute this time around) and them actually using it for "work".
Once upon a time, in the days when you could actually buy sedans, and hatchbacks, and wagons, and sports cars, the kinds of people who had trucks were the kinds of people who needed them. The absolute classic work truck is a Toyota Hilux Work Mate with pull down sides. These things were owned by tradies. In the accounting firm that I used to work for, actual genuine tradies would use actual genuine tracks and vans.
As with this survey, in deciding what is a "Work" and a "Not Work" truck, I use a very very broad brush. If the truck has chequerplate boxes, or a ladder, or any kind of equipment at all (I would have accepted a single shifting spanner), on display at all, then it was a Work truck. If there wasn't any prima facie evidence that the truck had ever been used for work, then it went into the Not Work category.
If a truck looked like it was for Work, in any way, shape, or form, then I classified it as a Work truck. If on the other hand, there was no obvious evidence that it looked like it was for work, then I classified it as a Not Work truck. The basic test, which I want to be as generous and as quick as possible, is to look at the obvious. If a truck looks like it is a Work truck then it is that; if a truck looks like it is a Not Work truck then it is that.
Also, since my survey has now switched from Marayong in Sydney's west to North Sydney where I now work, I will point out that this might have some bearing on the data which is collected. I imagine that as I am now working in North Sydney instead of Mosman, that the data is actually over-egged in terms of Work trucks, because of actual tradies who drive through North Sydney. They have less to be pretentious about than the people of Mosman.
Here then, is the raw data:
Here is the organised data:
As before, the first observation is that the more expensive a truck looks and the nicer that a truck looks, the less likely that it is to be used for Work. Yet again the big offenders here are the Dodge RAM and the Chevrolet Silverado; both of which in two surveys now, have not yet fielded a Work truck.
The fact that the Ford Ranger has remained at about 80% not work, also does not surprise me. The Ranger as it is sold in Australia, is almost never seen at all in a 2-door pulldown-side variant. The Ford Ranger has never been particularly sold in Australia as a Work truck and acts more as a replacement for the Falcon. Having said that, what used to be Falcon sales 15 years ago, are now not made up by the Ranger, Everest, Mustang and the rest of Ford's shrinking lineup added together.
The Hilux on the other hand, has actually become more of a work truck, with most of what I saw being 4-foor crewcabs with chequerplate boxes. This seems to suggest that Hilux has taken what used to be Commodore sales; with a little bit of takeover of what used to be pulldown side trucks of the Falcon and Commodore utes.
The Nissan Navara is perhaps the surprise of this data set, as it has flipped from being a Not Work to a work vehicle mostly. There was also 1 Ford Falcon ute, which was a one-tonne flatbed; with a generator strapped to the back.
The only truck that I saw towing anything, was a Toyota Hilux Work Mate; which had a cement mixer and what appeared to be both a generator and a concrete pump in a trailer.
The fact that the data sets look broadly similar should be of no surprise to anyone. The fact that there has been a general trend to Not Work as people but Emotional Support Trucks (ESTs) in lieu of actual cars, is testament to the fact that the market for motor vehicles generally is going this way. Ford will not sell you a sedan any more. Toyota do not sell a performance family car. Even the luxury car companies have all jumped on the trend of the SUVification of everything because an SUV can command a significantly higher price for only a marginally higher input cost.
However, the attitude of the consumer who claims that they "need" a truck for "work", is mostly likely lying to you. They do not. We know that they do not as evidenced by the fact that over half of all the trucks on the road (I think that my survey is probably representative) are not actually Work trucks. Yet again we have to conclude that ESTs are being bought instead of the sedans and hatchbacks. Certainly the adverts for them, like the advert for the Isuzu D-Max, or the advert for the Mitsubishi Triton, or the advert for the Ford Ranger, shows none of these things being used for Work at all.
Once again, the the consumer who claims that they "need" a truck for "work", is not likely lying to you on that count but also on the count that they claim to "need" a truck to tow a caravan. We know that this claim is also abject poppycock as evidenced by the fact that the number of caravans actually being bought are falling. ABC News: Why are so many Australian caravan companies collapsing? Again people who claim to "need" a truck to tow a caravan can be tested with the question "Do you have a caravan?" and we know that the answer is more likely to be "No" because of the sales data.
Spending more than $60,000 on truck which is used cart the family around in, and not actually a Work truck, but which is being rung through the business as a business expense, is not only a lie but a lie which the rest of the county is effectively carrying as an expense due to taxation effects.
In two years, my attitude has changed from not just questioning "what kind of truck do you have?" but now actively considering that in more than half of all cases, you not only have a Not Work truck but you are using it for Not Work. Unless proven positive, not only do you not need a truck for work, you are not going to use it for work. I now have two sets of data which points to this.
