Class 8 Orders Stay Strong in August

Numbers show that orders for Class 8 trucks were strong in August according to reports from American Commercial Transportation Research and FTR Transportation Intelligence.

About 25,000 Class 8 trucks were ordered in August, which FTR said was an increase of 29% over last year. This marks the 19th consecutive month of yearly gains in that segment. Through the first six months of this year, that's an annualized rate of 316,000 units.

“August marks the third consecutive month of atypically robust orders for Class 8 at a time of the year when orders are usually soft,” said Kenny Vieth, ACT’s president and senior analyst. “This ongoing strength is in line with continued reports of rising freight volumes and healthy freight rate gains for truckers.”

However, FTR says that the numbers may not be as positive as they appear, because orders were driven, in part, by dealer incentive programs. In addition, August orders were not broad-based across the industry, said Don Ake, FTR Vice President of Commercial Vehicles.

ACT’s research also showed that orders for Class 5-7 vehicles made positive gains in August, with 17,700 vehicles ordered, but were slightly down from last year.

“That volume represented an improvement of 12% from July, but was also the fourth consecutive miss compared to year-ago volumes, dropping 4% compared to August 2013,” said Veith.