The weak trucking market, so evidenced in disastrous first-quarter earnings for both truckload and LTL carriers, is having a mixed impact on new Class 8 truck orders, according to the two key companies that track that data.
FTR Transportation Intelligence reported that preliminary net orders for April were 14,000 units. That was down 28% from March but up 12.5% from April 2023.
Meanwhile, ACT Research pegged Class 8 net orders last month at 15,600 units. That was down 1,800, or 10.3%, from March but up 30% from a year ago.
According to FTR, the April numbers on truck orders were “consistent with the recent demand trend and in line with seasonal expectations.” First-quarter figures were strong enough that they “mostly quelled concerns of a rapid decline in demand.” The market for new Class 8 vehicles, FTR said, is “performing slightly above replacement-level orders.”
New orders the prior three months have been averaging about 25,000 tractors. The slowdown reflected in April, FTR said, is “seasonally typical.”
“OEMs continue to fill build slots at a healthy rate,” FTR said. “Although most OEMs saw declining orders, some saw small increases.”
“Despite the month-over-month decline, the fact that orders were up significantly from the April 2023 level indicates that the market is still solid,” Dan Moyer, senior analyst, commercial vehicles, said in the FTR release on its data. Although the freight market is suffering from “persistent stagnation,” Moyer said trucking companies had not been “deterred” from ordering new trucks.
Ken Veith, ACT president and its senior analyst, described the freight market as being in a “long bottom” with “lingering market overcapacity” and “dismal” profitability in the first quarter.
But besides that, Veith said, the order books at OEMs are “producing results in-line with expectations.”
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