It’s the dog days of summer for Class 8 orders
Preliminary Class 8 truck orders reached their lowest levels since September 2013 in August, according to industry forecaster FTR.
They totaled 19,550 units, down 18% from July and 22% year-over-year.
“Historically August is one of the lowest ordering months, so if we have bottomed out at 20,000 units, that’s positive,” said Don Ake, vice-president of commercial vehicles with FTR. “It shows the market is stabilizing at a fairly high rate resulting in a reasonably soft landing as production begins to moderate. We expect orders to remain at this level in September before steadily rising beginning in October.”
ACT Research reported preliminary Class 8 orders of 19,700 units and Clases 5-8 orders of 37,200 units, down 8% from July and 14% year-over-year.
“The year-over-year decline marked the fifth consecutive negative reading for Classes 5-8 orders,” said Kenny Vieth, ACT’s president and senior analyst. “However, we continue to believe that much of the order decline is a reflection of larger backlogs and tough comps, rather than any substantive change in demand.”
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I bought 3 new 2013 KW’s that now have only 250,000 km on them. I have had more problems with engine lights and sensor failures that you can imagine. They cant go a month without being towed into the dealership… and of course its never covered under warranty. I have always bought 3 new trucks every year but haven’t since 2013.
Truck orders have declined, probably because the new ones aren’t Worth a s***. We bought a new peterbilt in 2012 and it spends more time in the shop than on the road. Coding continuously causing it to shut down or loose power… and for some reason it’s never covered by the guarantee. Totally unreliable. Our 1997 and our 1998 are MUCH MORE RELIABLE !!! They need to stop using us as guinea pigs with their new fangled systems.