Orders for new International Class 8 trucks have doubled in the last couple of months, but Truck Group President Steve Keate remains optimistic that the upturn is mainly due to the economy, not pre-buying to beat Oct. 1 emissions.

Keate told the trade media in a recent teleconference that International booked some 4,000 orders for Class 8 trucks in March and again in April. During the previous 12 months, orders averaged close to 2,000 a month.
While he acknowledged that some of the added demand is from customers looking to take delivery before the new engine changeover, “I think that’s the minority,” he said. “The feedback I’m getting in my discussions with customers and dealers is that a level of optimism has developed over the last 60 days which is significantly higher than we’ve seen in the last 18 months.”
Customers have put off buying new trucks for quite a while, he added, and dealers who depleted inventories during the downturn are restocking to be ready when the market comes back.
Orders for Class 6 and 7 trucks picked up some, to about 2,800 units in April versus an average 2,400 over the last six months.
Keate said they're trying to get customers to "experience" trucks with the new engines "because we think that once they do, the fear of the unknown is going to go away pretty quickly."
Moving away from emissions worries, the company is pushing its International Service Information Solutions (ISIS) system, which offers technical publications, repair manuals, warranty information, service bulletins, and vehicle histories via the Internet.
ISIS was originally available only to dealers, but International started offering it to fleets on a paid-subscriber basis earlier this year. Keate said they have about a dozen fleets signed up so far and are getting about a million hits on the website per month.