Today we talk freight dynamics, and what it will take for a market turnaround. ATA believes a supply recovery is underway but says it could be ugly and slow going, and MEMA members surveyed have mostly bearish predictions for 2026 as a result. We also touch on transactions, as Genuine Parts intends to split its Motion Industries business from its Automotive brands like UAP/Traction and NAPA and offer an update on Eaton's move to spin off its truck business. Then we address ATA's plea to EPA to alter the Low NOx rule, highlight Detroit's 2027 engines and welcome the new president of the American Truck Dealers.
Lucas: Hey everybody. Lucas here for today’s TPS Weekly News Roundup. Bit of a short roundup this week with Monday’s holiday.
We’re going to start with the MEMA Pulse webinar from Wednesday, which featured MEMA’s Philip Atkins and ATA economist, Emily Clayton talking about the 2026 economy and trucking economy. Both sides expecting that we’re going to have another slow year in 2026. There is an expectation that there will be a recovery, but as Emily put it, it’s going to be a supplier recovery. So, not as exciting as what we usually want to see with a demand recovery, where the market just picks up. It’s going to be a matter of getting things back to equilibrium from a capacity perspective, and then rates start to rise from there. So, that’s really what ATA is expecting for its members in 2026.
MEMA expecting kind of, maybe even a weaker year. Philip said 78% of surveyed MEMA members are expecting sales to be down in 2026 to 2025. Not down a ton, but down a little bit. So, we’re not really expecting a huge year for 2026, but you know, who knows, maybe things will turn around.
Some other news this week. Genuine Parts Company, which owns NAPA in the automotive sector as well as Traction, UAP/Traction in Canada and then the Traction brand in North America, is splitting its business in two. It’s automotive business, which would be NAPA, Traction and some of its other products would be one business; and then it’s industrial segment with Motion Industries and some of its other brands would be a, a secondary segment. More information about that will be forthcoming in the months ahead, but Genuine Parts saying they intend to split the business by the end of Q1 of 2027 — similarly to what Eaton has said they’re going to do in splitting their business. [On that note], I had an update from Eaton that published on Friday, so if you didn’t see that, check that out.
ATA sent a letter to the EPA this week asking for some flexibility regarding the Low NOx ruling, saying that the ruling is … not outright expecting or asking for a delay, but saying that a slight delay could be helpful to allow some more testing of the equipment. Some 2027 engines are starting to come out. International’s came out last month. Detroit’s came out earlier, earlier this week, but we still haven’t seen those engines yet. So ATA saying maybe some changes, some delays to the regulation would be helpful. We don’t know if that’s going to happen or not, but that’s what ATA is asking for.
And then one last thing, ATD is getting a new president. The American Truck Dealers. David Bell, previously worked for NHTSA is coming on board on March 2, so he’ll be the new leader of ATD. There’s a story on about that on the website. We’ll have more with David, an interview with David, probably next week or the week after. But we look forward to learning about him and what he’s going to do for ATD.
Also check the website. A lot of good stuff this week. Make sure you didn’t miss anything. Like and subscribe to these videos. Have a great weekend and we will see you next week. Thanks everyone. Bye.
