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.
Now in sync with lower tractor orders after equipment ordering binge, trailer bookings recorded their softest February since the Great Recession as coronavirus concerns gave fleets another reason to stay out of the market.
Jim Blaze writes about the outlook for intermodal rail in 2020.
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.
A slower year of trailer production is expected as the equipment backlog waiting to be built fell in 11 of 12 months in 2019.
Trailer orders move up and down but the overall industry is ending a decade of growth that is just beginning to slow.
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.
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.
Great Dane is gathering all the key issues trailers can have into an integrated platform to make it easier for drivers and fleets to see when something is amiss.
Trailer orders in September were the highest since February, suggesting another strong year of production in 2020.
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.
Additive manufacturing, also known as 3D printing is no longer a fad in truck making. Companies are making greater use of the technology to save time and money although the technology itself is still expensive.
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.
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.
Greenhouse gas regulations are the sticks and incentives are the carrots in driving the heavy-duty truck and commercial vehicle industry to embrace electrification.
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.
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.
U.S. rail carloads no longer appear to be following the lead of broader economic indicators. Why? Look to concerns about rail service reliability and trade uncertainty as answers.
