COLUMBUS, Ind. — Class 8 commercial vehicle preliminary net orders remained soft in June, according to reports from ACT Research. Classes 5-7 net orders also fell below trend, but the decline was expected, ACT officials said, as medium-duty activity typically tapers off during the summer months. The final numbers, which will be released mid-July, will approach 16,500 units for heavy-duty Class 8 trucks and 12,900 for medium duty Classes 5-7 vehicles. The preliminary net order numbers are typically accurate to within 5% of actual, according to ACT

“The explanation for the soft patch remains of the ‘death by a thousand cuts’ variety,” said Kenny Vieth, president and senior analyst at ACT Research. “As has been the case since late February/early March, the issue appears to boil down to credit-buying truckers’ confidence in the economy relative to the risk of taking out a sizeable loan to buy a truck. To that end, risk, economic or political, domestic or global, remains high, and memories of 2009 are still fresh.”