Vocational truck buyers seem to be getting a start on buying new power units, ACT's North American Commercial Vehicle Outlook says.
"While we always caution that one month does not make a trend, September's orders suggest queuing for the limited build slots between now and the beginning of 2027 has begun," says Kenny Vieth, ACT's president and senior analyst. "With tractor demand suspect, vocational truck production should continue to surge into 2025."
[RELATED: Reports show Class 8 net orders dropped in October]
Vieth said the U.S. and Canadian markets still have capacity for Class 8 trucks, which ACT expects to remain under pressure next year.
"After a ten-quarter elevator ride down, carrier profitability rebounded modestly in Q3, as the economy continued to generate good freight volumes and capacity continued to slowly exit the market," Vieth says. "With the expectation that tractor sales will slow in early 2025, one of the missing pieces of the recovery-to-date, capacity rationalization, will finally fall into place. Even as we more fully recognize the depth of the macro-economic support lifting heavy vocational equipment demand, the tractor market remains under pressure."
