Strong freight growth in the United States is seeing a boom in its heavy vehicle sales.
Transport analysis company FTR has reported sales for class 8 semi-trucks is “above expectations” with 40,200 units in February, up 76% year on year.
It exceeds 40,000 sales for consecutive months which has not happened since November to December 2014.
FTR commercial vehicles vice president Don Ake says fleets are striving to add hauling capacity in response to strong freight growth.
Orders were strong across the board for all markets and truck types.
North American class 8 orders for the past twelve months have now reached 333,000 units.
“The Class 8 market remains red-hot.
“The capacity crunch is transforming into a capacity crisis and many fleets of all sizes, in all markets, across the country are scrambling to add trucks as fast as they can.
“Robust freight growth is the primary driver and ELD [Electronic Logging Device] implementation is just exacerbating a tough situation.”
“It looks like fleets held back some orders from the fourth quarter to see if freight growth would continue and if ELDs were final.
“Now that the environment is more certain, the orders have been pouring in. This upturn looks strikingly similar to 2015, but is now expected to exceed it. Production is ramping up and should remain vibrant into next year,” Ake says
