COLUMBUS, IN – October’s preliminary net order numbers for North American class 8 commercial vehicles are in, says ACT Research, and they are on the upside.

The final tally, which will be released later this month, will approach 27,000 units of heavy duty class 8 trucks and 13, 300 for medium classes 5-7 trucks.

Steve Tam, ACT vice president-commercial vehicle sector, said that there is probably some incremental fleet growth happening. “The underlying fundamentals in the heavy truck market are all healthy. Fleet equipment is old, trucker profitability is good, used truck values are strong, and financing is generally available."

The preliminary numbers are usually good to within 5 percent of the actual numbers, ACT noted.