October was another month of “why bother” as fleets desperate for new Class 8 trucks held off adding bookings to a morass of back orders.
A bigger-displacement natural gas-powered engine from Cummins could prompt fleets to switch from diesel in pursuit of lower emissions.
Truck Talk is a weekly newsletter offering perspective and context on happenings in the trucking ecosystem.
Class 8 truck orders skipped a beat in September as supply shortages delayed the typical order season with fewer new trucks booked.
“There are significant inventories of already produced vehicles where essential parts are lacking.”
Demand usually drives heavy-duty truck production forecasts, but the delta variant and a constrained supply chain are wrecking projections.
Trailer makers have connectivity advancements in the pipeline as they navigate supply shortages hampering production.
Used truck prices continue to fly higher as demand overwhelms supply of pre-owned models.
Higher prices for used trucks are expected to last into 2022 and when they fall, it will be from a lofty place.
The last time demand was this high for new Class 8 trucks, fleets placed record orders. Not this time because manufacturing capacity is limited.
Skyrocketing prices for late-model used equipment bring older, less attractive used trucks to auctions
Look behind soft June trailer orders for the real story of what’s happening in a constrained equipment market.
Fleets still want and need trucks but move to sidelines until manufacturers open their order books.
The refrain for fleets remained the same for trailer orders in May: Why book what you can’t get?
Declining Class 8 truck orders in May are deceptive. Fleets would order more but they are holding off because it might take a year to get them.
New trailer orders slid dramatically in April as manufacturers had more dry and refrigerated van bookings than they could build.
Slowdowns in deliveries of new trucks are driving prices of newer used trucks up in the double digits both at dealerships and in auctions.
Microchip shortages and skyrocketing commodity prices make it unlikely that any of the 33,500 new Class 8 trucks ordered in April will be built this year.
Many carriers expanded their fleets after the 2018 freight boom and were rewarded with an extremely challenging oversupplied market in 2019. The current pattern looks eerily similar to early 2018, but are they comparable?
The growing backlog of new truck orders has supercharged pricing for newer used models at auctions, with retail traffic also high.
Trailer orders edged back toward trend in March, but the crush of orders in recent months leaves manufacturers addled by supply chain issues struggling.
Truck Talk is a weekly newsletter where FreightWaves adds context, commentary and color to industry news and trends.
Trailer makers cannot keep up with demand, pushing out delivery times while navigating supply chain bumps.
New Class 8 truck orders are piling up, leading fleets to turn to used equipment to add capacity in a consumer-driven freight market.
Class 8 truck orders have exceeded 30,000 a month for six consecutive months, more bookings than in the previous 18 months combined.
After four straight months of near-record orders, trailer bookings took a breather in January as some manufacturers slowed taking reservations.
Rush Enterprises sold Class 8 trucks at a level reflecting the industry’s overall COVID-impacted decline in 2020. It expects better results in 2021 and beyond.
Parts shortages and supply chain issues could push planned Q1 production into spring as robust orders continue in January.
Prices for used Class 8 tractors should maintain the momentum from the last half of 2020, but the nation’s unemployment rate could affect that, according to J.D. Power Valuation Services.
2020 was supposed to be a year when trailer orders dropped after racing ahead of Class 8 tractor reservations. Even with practically no orders in April, annual trailer bookings blew away early-year predictions.
Consumer goods demand, recovery in manufacturing and shortage of drivers combine to create profits that fleets spend to upgrade and expand truck capacity.
Orders for new trailers dipped in November but the total bookings in the last three months are still the second highest in industry history.
The Cass Freight Index sees sequential weakness in shipments but logs year-over-year improvement with expenditures data advancing.
Heavy-duty trucks with collision avoidance, emergency braking and other safety technologies are beginning to enter the used truck market, potentially making the roads safer as older trucks are retired.
Preliminary Class 8 truck orders in November were the third highest in history as fleets anticipating steady freight demand locked up build slots in 2021.
The trend of improving used truck sales stalled in October. But year-over-year price gains are holding up. Added capacity could be a problem if pandemic shutdowns slow freight demand.
Concern over the supply chain for wood and aluminum components to build new trailers adds to consumer goods-driven demand that pushed equipment orders over 50,000 for a second straight month in October.
Preliminary Class 8 truck orders in North America reached a two-year high in October with more than 40,000 reservations.
Increased freight volume and higher carrier profits always drive Class 8 truck demand. The circumstances in 2020 differ from 2018’s tax cut-driven boom, but reasons for the surge are identical.
All stakeholders are experiencing used truck momentum despite and because of the lingering pandemic.
Cash from higher spot rates and replacement orders led September Class 8 truck orders to their highest monthly total since October 2019
Pulled along by improving orders for new Class 8 trucks, demand for late-model heavy-duty used trucks continues to swell.
The continuing rebound in trailer orders is in line with three-year high in spot freight rates as consumers buy more goods than services.
Record freight rates led to another solid month of Class 8 truck orders despite a pandemic, a presidential campaign and social unrest.
Demand headwinds will place “downwards pressure on revenue and earnings likely into 2021” for trailer manufacturer Wabash National. This was part of the rationale behind credit rating agency Moody’s lowering its ratings on the company.
Prices are firming and demand is rising for used trucks after more than a year of doldrums mirroring a slowdown in new truck orders.
The last time capacity tightened to this level, capacity flooded the trucking space. Will the same outcome occur in 2020?
Despite economic uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus pandemic, freight demand drove July Class 8 orders to their highest levels in six months.
Cautious optimism expressed for the June trucking market by analysts at both organizations
Preliminary orders for Class 8 trucks in June rebounded to a four-month high, following a rapid improvement in freight rates.
It’s a bargain hunter’s market for used trucks, especially sleeper cabs, as prices come off the floor but demand for one-owner equipment remained slack in May.
After an April in which practically no net trailer orders were added to build schedules, a big improvement in May was welcome, but it’s still the second-weakest month on record.
Near-shutdown of Class 8 truck production in May resulted in stagnant orders as COVID-19 lockdowns took hold.
The numbers game is intensifying as falling used truck prices and swelling inventories persuade fleets to hang on to younger equipment until they can break even.
April’s coronavirus impact intensified pricing pressure in an already depressed used truck market where most cash-conserving buyers held back on purchases.
Class 8 orders in April plummeted to their lowest level since September 1995 as the COVID-19 pandemic froze new bookings and led to postponing near-term deliveries.
The largest manufacturer of heavy-duty trucks puts worker protections in place as it tries to make up for production lost to the coronavirus pandemic.
With benchmark prices down 26% year over year, analysts pin hopes for a used truck sales recovery to the restart of the economy. March was a tale of contrasts with decent sales early in the month that plummeted later as too many trucks sought too few loads.
The coronavirus pandemic resulted in half as many year-over-year orders in a month when comparisons were expected to be easy. With truck makers suspending production, even the paltry bookings will go into backlog.
All four major heavy-duty truck manufacturers now have suspended production for at least two weeks, with market leaders Daimler Trucks North America and PACCAR Inc. the latest to stop building trucks because of the coronavirus pandemic.
In a peak demand year for Class 8 tractors, high-powered engines dominated under the hood, but even a new heavy-haul transmission from Eaton and Cummins doesn’t affect an accelerating trend toward smaller displacement as tougher emissions standards loom.
ACT Research cannot model downturn scenarios fast enough for Class 8 trucks, but high inventory levels make the coronavirus crisis a good time to take a production break as demand is practically nonexistent.
Before the coronavirus became a pandemic, used truck sales posted their best performance in two years as low prices and seasonality combined to boost an otherwise slow market for older equipment.
Already feeble orders of new tractors took another hit in February as uncertainty over the business impact of the coronavirus kept fleets out of the market.
Swollen inventories of heavy-duty trucks must shrink or manufacturers will need to cut production further to keep the industry order bank from declining further, ACT Research says.
The electrification of the transportation sector is not easy, and it is not something that industry needs governments to lead. But, a little help from state and local governments will […]
After consecutive years of record numbers, equipment orders have fallen to replacement cycle levels, making it feel like the industry has fallen off a cliff.
A slower year of trailer production is expected as the equipment backlog waiting to be built fell in 11 of 12 months in 2019.
Daimler Trucks is executing structural changes around the world because of sliding sales.
A host of issues, from regulations to overcapacity, are coming together to place unanticipated stresses on carriers just as 2020 begins.
New Class 8 truck orders dipped to their lowest level in a decade in 2019, payback for an ordering frenzy a year earlier.
Trailer orders move up and down but the overall industry is ending a decade of growth that is just beginning to slow.
It is sort of a hostage situation. New truck orders are stalled until used truck prices go higher.
The power and fuel efficiency of truck engines continue to rise as their size and weight shrink.
Preliminary orders for new Class 8 trucks tumbled again in November after one month of improved bookings, new evidence that a slowing manufacturing economy is sapping all but critical replacement demand.
Volvo Trucks North America will lay off about 700 workers in January, extending an industry pullback in production to match slowing orders of new Class 8 trucks.
The number of used Class 8 trucks for sale continues to grow as new equipment deliveries drain the backlog created during a 2018 order binge.
Preliminary orders for new trailers met expectations in October reached their highest level in 11 months, upholding expectations for a good, but not great 2020.
The traditional ordering season for new Class 8 trucks opened in October with the highest activity in 11 months. Still, the number of orders placed was the weakest for an October since 2016 — and 51% below October 2018.
With diesel fuel powering 97% of all heavy-duty trucks, it seems silly to predict its industry dominance will end. But don’t tell that to California where the good can be the enemy of the great.
Rush Enterprises Inc., the largest dealer network of commercial vehicles in North America, reported lower earnings and higher sales in the third quarter. But the company warned that a glut of used trucks is causing faster-than-normal depreciation and is hurting sales.
Trailer orders in September were the highest since February, suggesting another strong year of production in 2020.
The impact of a United Auto Workers’ strike at Mack Trucks will nearly double next week when Volvo Trucks North America lays off about 3,000 employees because of a lack of engines and transmissions that come from a Maryland plant the companies share.
Preliminary Class 8 retail sales for September set an all-time record, but large fleet deliveries likely inflated the results that erased the previous record set in December 2006. Meanwhile, the backlog of trucks waiting to be built is falling, which is leading to layoffs..
Preliminary September orders for Class 8 trucks improved over August but remained stagnant as fleets delayed booking new equipment in the face of ongoing trade tensions slowing swaths of the manufacturing economy.
Used truck sales continue to fall but for the first time since January 2018, so are the prices asked for them.
After a record year for orders in 2018, fleets and dealers are holding back on placing many new trailer orders, a situation that analysts say could improve in the fourth quarter.
Preliminary used Class 8 truck sales fell for the 10th consecutive month in August as used trucks hit the market in bigger numbers because of new truck deliveries from record orders placed in the latter half of 2018.
Class 8 truck manufacturers are beginning to pare production as the backlog of record orders from 2018 shrinks and new orders continue to be slow.
Class 8 truck orders fell again in August as fleets stayed on the sidelines while taking delivery of a record number of heavy-duty trucks ordered in 2018.
The engine displacement in Class 8 commercial tractors is expected to drop in coming years as stricter federal emissions standards take effect in the next decade.
The on-again, off-again trade war between the U.S. and China is a great threat to commercial vehicle forecasts, already buffeted by too many trucks and slowing freight growth.
Payback for a record run of new trailer orders last summer continued in July with fewer than 10,000 new orders placed, a dramatic drop from the same month in 2018. Typical during summer months, low orders suggest a possible return to normal order patterns after an overheated second half in 2018.
The rise and fall of interest in natural gas trucks typically depends on the price of oil. Now, the availability of clean energy credits in California and tougher NOx rules expected from the California Air Resources Board are additional reasons for purchase.
July heavy-duty truck orders were the lowest since 2010, more evidence of a trucking sector recession taking hold.
Ryder Systems Inc. posted strong second-quarter revenue but reduced its second-half earnings guidance on weakness in used truck sales and rentals.
The average price of a Class 8 used truck sold in June was $48,800, up 6 percent compared to June 2018, according to the latest report by ACT Research.
Trailer orders hit their lowest level in nearly a decade in June, mirroring the slowdown in new truck orders after record performances for both in 2018.
ACT Research says the trucking industry meets the definition of being in a technical recession as all major metrics it tracks have declined for two consecutive quarters.
Class 8 truck orders rose sightly in June from May’s figures, but posted their worst first six months of the year since 2010.
