New orders of dry van commercial trailers more than doubled in October from the prior year, leading total net orders of commercial trailers to a 33-month high, according to ACT Research.
Eight of the nine trailer categories tracked by ACT posted year-over-year growth.

In the latest release of State of the Industry: U.S. Trailers, ACT noted that net orders of 17,126 were 79 percent higher than October of last year. The strong inflow of orders pushed manufacturer backlogs up by over 5,000 units.

"The strength in October orders was widespread, but was clearly led by a surge in demand for dry van trailers," said Kenny Vieth, president and partner of ACT Research. "October was only the second month since early 2007 that dry van net orders broke above what ACT considers to be the dry van replacement level, meaning carriers are just now starting to work towards catching up on their replacement cycle.".

ACT offers new and used commercial vehicle industry data, market analysis and forecasting services.