Gavin Renfrew
Vice President, Global Accounting at Copart
Thank you, Jeff, and good morning. I will start with the key statistics that we provide each quarter. Global unit sales increased 1.9% year-on-year for the quarter with the U.S. increase of 1.3% and an international increase of 5.5%, excluding catastrophic events from both periods, last year and this year, for the first quarter, U.S. unit sales grew by 1.9%. Insurance business grew relative to one-year and two-year comparison due to share gains and the continued recovery in driving activity and accident frequency and severity.
Notably, record high used vehicle prices have for the past several quarters negatively impacted total loss frequency and have tempered overall insurance volume growth. For the first time, in nearly two years, we've observed a small sequential increase in total loss frequency of 20 basis points, while auction returns remain near all-time highs and the ASPs continue to outpace the strong used car price environment on a percentage basis.
Elevated used vehicle values and therefore insurance ACVs continue to reduce total loss volume relative to what it would otherwise be. Though up slightly sequentially, total loss frequency for the third calendar quarter in 2022 was down year-on-year, falling by 220 basis points versus the same period in 2021. If vehicles were totaled at the same rate as in prior years, we would've observed industry total loss volumes of 10% to 15% higher.
While total loss frequency has declined over the course of the last two years, we still believe this to be a relatively short-term scenario. We appear to be observing some stabilization in total loss frequency based on the past two sequential quarters. Regardless, it is our view that the market will inevitably revert to its 40-year historical norm of steadily rising total loss frequency. Accident severity, repair complexity and duration, repair labor costs and rental car costs will contribute to said reversion, bodes by Copart's best-in-class auction liquidity and global buyer base. As we continue with significant resource investment into member recruitment, registration, retention, etc.
While supply chain bottleneck persists today, we do anticipate that the eventual unwinding of these conditions will lead to a moderation of used vehicle values, ultimately trending back to lower levels in the future. We appear to be experiencing a moderation of these forces now with Manheim's used vehicle index now at its lowest points since August 2021. A decline in wholesale auction values may cause a reduction in our ASPs, but would almost certainly coincide with offsetting volume increases as well.
We anticipate that lower ASPs, an increased vehicle availability, will inevitably reverse the observed short-term total loss frequency and volume trend previously noted. While overall, U.S. non-insurance unit volume is relatively flat up approximately 0.2% in the quarter, excluding lower value cards from sources such as wholesalers and charities. We believe we are substantially outperforming other wholesale auction channels, both physical and digital.
Next on our financial results. For the first quarter, global revenue increased $83.2 million or 10.3%, including a $23.6 million headwind due to currency. Global service revenue increased $59 million or 8.8% for the first quarter, primarily due to higher average selling prices and increased volume. U.S. service revenue grew 10.3% for the quarter and international experienced a decrease of 2.4%.
We saw continued strength in ASPs, which grew 5% year-over-year for the quarter, with U.S. ASPs up 6.4%. The Manheim indexes declined from the January record levels, but remains historically elevated ending October at 200, a decrease of 10.6% year-over-year. Purchased vehicles continued to comprise an increasing percentage of our overall revenue mix, driven by both strong used car values and growth and volume, particularly in our cash for cars business in the U.S. and from international expansion.
Purchased vehicle sales for the first quarter increased $24.2 million or 17%, with U.S. purchased vehicle revenue for the quarter up 10.8% and international up by 27% for the quarter. Purchased vehicle cost of sales grew $24.7 million or 19.5% in the first quarter, as a result, purchased vehicle gross profits decreased slightly by $0.5 million or 3.1% during the quarter.
Global gross profits in the first quarter decreased by $15.5 million or 4%, and our gross margin percentage decreased by approximately 600 basis points to 41.4%. U.S. margins decreased from 50.3% to 44.1% sorry -- and international margins decreased from 33.1% to 27.2%. The year-over-year margin decline was primarily attributable to two factors, 200 basis points to 250 basis points of the quarter decline was due to elevated Hurricane Ian costs being directly expensed in the quarter.
The balance of our margin contraction is attributable to a mixed shift to purchase vehicles. A modest reduction in purchase vehicle margins and cost inflation in both towing and labor offset partially by higher revenue per unit and volume growth. However, we believe we can continue to increase margin and returns on capital over time as we benefit from scale and find further operational efficiencies through technology and innovation. Excuse me.
I will now move to a discussion of G&A expenditures, excluding stock compensation and depreciation expenses. G&A spend in the quarter increased $3.4 million or 8.3%. While G&A can be volatile from period to period over the longer-term, we anticipate G&A to decline as a percentage of revenue as we grow our business and create additional leverage.
Our GAAP operating income decreased by 5.6% from $330.1 million to $311.5 million for the first quarter, including a $4.1 million headwind due to currency, excluding catastrophic events from both periods, operating income decreased by 3.3%. First quarter income tax expense was $67.3 million. It takes 21.5% effective tax rate. Adjusting for the tax benefits associated with the exercise of employee stock options on a non-GAAP basis, our effective tax rate would've been 21.7%.
First quarter GAAP net income decreased 5.6% from $260.4 million last year to $245.8 million this year. Adjusted to remove the items detailed in our pro forma reconciliation included in our press release, non-GAAP net income decreased 4.7% from $257.4 million last year to $245.2 million in the first quarter of FY'23.
Our global inventory at the end of October decreased 3.6% from last year and was flat when excluding low value units like wholesalers and charities. That is comprised of a year-over-year decrease of 6.3% for U.S. inventory, down 2.6% when excluding low value units and an increase of 17.1% for international inventory. For the first time in recent history, the number of total losses as a percentage of overall accidents has been declining. As a result, our inventory levels are lower than they were a year ago, despite incremental inventory attributable to unsold vehicles picked up during the quarter from Hurricane Ian.
Now to briefly update our liquidity and cash flow highlights, as of October 31, 2022, we had $2.8 billion of liquidity comprised of $1.5 billion in cash and cash equivalents and an undrawn revolving credit facility with capacity of over $1.2 billion. Operating cash flow for the quarter, decreased by $1 million year-over-year to $311.6 million, driven by lower earnings due to the additional expenses incurred in the quarter from Hurricane Ian.
We invested $152.7 million in capital expenditures in the quarter with over 80% of this amount attributable to capacity expansion as we are continuing to prioritize investments in physical infrastructure. Despite unusual near-term forces that have suppressed unit sales relative to where they would've been, we continue to invest in capacity with the conviction that we and our customers will need it.
That concludes our prepared remarks, and we are happy to take some questions.