The surprising trailer order bump in July became a gigantic leap forward in August, ACT Research announced Wednesday.
ACT says preliminary net trailer orders last month were 24,200 units, up nearly 8,600 units from July and more than 16,000 units higher than August 2025. Seasonal adjustment (SA) at this point in the annual order cycle takes the month’s volume to 33,700 units, which ACT says the second best seasonally adjusted order volume in the past 43 months.
“Seasonally speaking, August net orders should have improved sequentially, so the uptick from July was no surprise” says Jennifer McNealy, director of CV market research and publications at ACT Research. “The degree of improvement, however, by historical standards was atypical. Typically, July is the weakest net order month of the annual ordering cycle, as fleets have made their decisions for current-year needs and OEMs start to build down the backlog.
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She continues, “That said, this year’s cycle has been anything but ordinary. The order cycle that should have started about this time last year was delayed due to ongoing weakness in freight rates and policy-driven uncertainty. With freight rates and carrier profits on the mend, August orders are on track to be the best since last December and the second best in the past 30 months.”
McNealy adds the increased order activity matches with anecdotal information ACT has received from the industry that trailer order boards opened early this year. But she also notes the increase does not guarantee extended market strength.
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“Despite this turning of the tide, caution remains a strategy for some trailer purchasers. Rates have risen in 2026, but the past few years have been hard for carriers, and now the challenges of growing pent-up demand and higher maintenance costs and downtime remain as counter-weights to their new equipment purchase decision-making process,” she says. “ACT Research continues to hear that the unseasonable spike in U.S. trailer orders is a three-fold event: customers ordering ahead of tariff-related price increases, healthier long-term business conditions, and pent-up replacement demand.”
