Trailer orders

Even as the economy shows signs of slowing, trailer manufacturers see strong demand and few cancellations.

The easing of constricted supply chains has allowed trailer manufacturers to accept orders that were shunned a year ago.

Uncertainty in the supply chain and commodity price vagaries are stretching out trailer orders beyond traditional cycles.

urricane season can frequently — and unexpectedly — change the trucking dynamic. Part of this involves the positioning of equipment in anticipation for hauling FEMA freight.

Rail service levels are impacting trucking intermodal growth plans. At a Deutsche Bank transportation conference on Tuesday, J.B. Hunt noted that intermodal demand remained strong but poor rail service appears to be creating a bottleneck. 

When the 2023 orderbooks for trailers finally open, the suppressed booking numbers will flip in a hurry, but that isn’t happening yet.

Trailer maker Wabash is benefiting from a steady order backlog and a focus on more activity with targeted customers.

FreightWaves recently conducted a survey of owner-operators outlining business issues and outlooks on profitability in 2022 compared to the previous year.

Cautious OEMs allowed the smallest number of trailer orders so far this year, pushing back bookings until late summer.

Trailer makers continue to push away orders as supply chain issues in different areas vex production amid stable pent-up demand.

Fruehauf returns to the U.S. with a new trailer manufacturing plant in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

War, pandemic shutdowns and supply chain woes resulted in a nearly 60% month-over-month decline in trailer orders in April.

New trailer orders surged to their highest level in 15 months in March, but a supply chain fraught with trouble means it could be an anomaly.

Trailers relegated to storage units are being cleaned up and hooked up to return to service as fleets wait out the supply chain crisis.

Trailer orders in January achieved equilibrium with the months of unbuilt orders as fleets and manufacturers operated in an ongoing parts supply shortage.

Drivers are people who have needs and wants, goods from October are just now being unloaded at West Coast ports, and the FMSCA has a new deputy administrator.

Worker outages and parts shortages becoming status quo for beleaguered trailer manufacturers.

Supply chain disruptions are far from over for trailer manufacturers, meaning November’s order rebound is probably not sustainable.

Stephens investment conference trucking equipment highlights Supply chain challenges were the main focus at the Stephens annual investment conference earlier this month in Nashville, Tennessee. Executives said driver recruiting and broader supply chain bottlenecks were slightly easing, but purchasing and procuring equipment has gotten notably tougher.  Lack of trailers becoming new driver shortage: Derek Leathers, […]

ATRI research on truck driver motivations and satisfaction The American Transportation Research Institute released results on its analysis on what motivates truck drivers to become company drivers or owner-operators/independent contractors (OO/IC). The data came from over 2,000 drivers, two-thirds of whom are OO/IC, and includes additional analysis on compensation models and driver satisfaction. Quick rundown […]