Bloomington, IN— Total Class 8 truck orders reached 20,915 units in November, making it the second month in a row to surpass the 20,000 unit threshold, according to FTR’s preliminary data. FTR specializes in forecasting freight transportation.

Don Ake, FTR vice president, commercial vehicles commented: “This is the highest number of orders in the month of November since 2010 continuing to show a solid year-over-year increase. However they are not sufficient to indicate a strong beginning to 2014.”

While November 2013 orders were up six percent since last year, they were down 19 percent month-over-month.

Orders for the three-month period including November are 266,600 units. Preliminary order numbers are for all major North American OEMs.

“Order activity was below our expectations and needs to be stronger in December to fill up Q1 build slots. The market continues to grow, but slowly. The three-month average is consistent with our 2014 forecast,” Ake said.

Final data for October will be available from FTR later in the month as part of its North American Commercial Truck & Trailer Outlook service.