FTR: Preliminary December U.S. net trailer orders at all-time high

December orders, when finalized, are expected to reach 47,000 units, exceeding the previous high of 45,800 units, which was reached in October 2014, according to FTR.    Preliminary December U.S. net trailer orders show an all-time high of 47,000 units, 10 percent above November and an increase of 38 percent year-over-year, according to data released Jan. 12 by Indiana-based freight transportation forecasting company FTR.
   December orders, when finalized, are expected to exceed the previous high of 45,800, which was reached in October 2014, according to FTR. Total trailer orders for 2017 stood at 308,000 units.
   “December was just an awesome month for trailer orders,” FTR Vice President of Commercial Vehicles Don Ake said. “We have seen pressure build on equipment markets for several months, and this shows Q1 is going to be hectic as fleets scramble to keep up with freight demand.”
   According to FTR, fleets are ordering thousands of dry vans to deal with exceptionally tight trucking capacity pushed to the edge by the electronic logging device (ELD) mandate, which went into effect Dec. 18. The mandate requires the use of ELDs for commercial trucks and buses.
   ELDs, which are meant as a replacement for traditional paper logbooks, synchronize with a vehicle’s engine to automatically record driving time.
   “Freight continues to grow without enough equipment to haul it,” FTR explained in a statement. “Carriers are resorting to much more drop-and-hook to compensate for the lack of drivers, and they need significantly more trailers to manage the demand.”
   Also keeping trailer demand strong across the board, FTR said, is economic growth. Refrigerated freight remains robust and the flatbed market continues to surge with construction and manufacturing growth boosting demand, while statistics also show tighter crude prices are reviving tank trailer sales.