Tariffs kick off our roundup this week as President Donald Trump announced late Thursday a new 25% tariff on imported heavy trucks beginning on Oct. 1. We share what we know about the potential tax, which OEMs will be impacted and could USMCA exemptions spare the industry from price hikes.
[RELATED: Our deep dive on how will the new levies affect manufacturers, suppliers, distributors and dealers?]
We also look into the used truck sector, where Arrow Truck Sales’ announcement it will close some stores and expand others has taken off on LinkedIn and our site. Then we mention the 90% redesigned Volvo VNR regional haul tractor that is now accepting orders (and will not be subject to tariffs), before closing with our recap of NTDA’s wonderfully helpful FET exemptions guidance webinar for trailer dealers.
Lucas: Hi everyone. Lucas here with the TPS Weekly News Roundup. Today we’re going to start back in the tariff world because last night about 6 p.m. President Trump announced a new 25% tariff on all heavy-duty trucks. Now he announced it on Truth Social [and] there wasn’t a lot of particulars, so we don’t know exactly if that applies to just Class 8 trucks, if that’s just heavy-duty trucks, if that’s all commercial vehicles. We do not know if USMCA-compliant vehicles are exempt. As business has worked up to this point if a vehicle was USMCA compliant — meaning the majority of components were sourced from North America — they were exempt from tariffs.
So, we’re not sure exactly what that means. International, Freightliner both have manufacturing facilities in Mexico just south of the border. Volvo announced plans in 2024 to build a production facility in Mexico that’s supposed to come online early in 2026. So, it’s definitely going impact the heavy duty truck makers depending on that USMCA compliance. But we’ll be keeping up on that story as it evolves and progresses. There is a story on the website right now on TPS that you can check out. We will be adding to that today, and we’ll be doing some follow-up reporting next week. So keep up on President Trump’s plan to enact tariffs as of Oct. 1st on heavy-duty trucks.
Other news, Volvo’s 90% redesigned regional hall VNR; the order board opened earlier this week. Now the VNR will not be impacted by the tariffs — partly because it doesn’t go into production until February — but also Volvo has announced it will be in production at their New River Valley plant in Dublin, Va. But that’s something that's coming in the news.
Another piece of news this week, this really kicked over the last weekend on social media, LinkedIn specifically, Arrow has announced it is restructuring and closing some of its used truck stores. Arrow has announced that in closing some stores, they will be expanding others into larger hub facilities. Arrow believes that by creating a hub network, it can better serve its customer base. So, that’s an interesting change from Arrow.
And then one last piece of news. This week we covered the NTDA trailer dealer webinar on FET exemptions for agricultural equipment, off-highway equipment and mobile machinery earlier this week. That was some really good guidance from Tim Reynolds at DHW about what exactly the IRS looks for when considering FET exemptions, what is exempt, what is not exempt, and what you have to prove as a dealer to earn an exemption and not get caught with a bill after the fact where you think something’s exempt and the IRS says, “Well, actually that’s not the case.”
So, some really good stuff on TPS this week. Like I said, we’ll be keeping up on the tariffs. We’ll let you know as soon as we hear more, as soon as the White House announces more. But a lot of really great news this week. Check out the website, check out the newsletter.
As always, please like and subscribe. We love to make sure you’re getting these videos every week, even if you’re not at your desk. Have a great weekend, and we will see you next week. Thanks everyone. Bye.
