According to this month’s issue of ACT Research’s State of the Industry: U.S. Trailers report, end-of-2025 challenges remained on the horizon as the trailer industry entered 2026.
“Cancellations gyrated between earth and outer space through most of 2025, before returning to a more subdued rate, 1.8% as a percentage of backlog, in December. The new year opened with a still elevated but more stable 1.6% rate in January,” Jennifer McNealy, director – CV market research and publications at ACT Research, said. “Data continued to show elevated cancellations in the dry van and tank segments.”
McNealy continued, “For a second consecutive month, net orders significantly outpaced build, pumping some life into the anemic backlogs on the books through most of 2025. Backlogs rose more than 18% sequentially, or about 12k units, ending January at 75,500 units.”
McNealy concluded, “As we move into 2026, the trailer industry faces relatively weak demand/order activity, financing concerns, tariffs known, the uncertainty of tariffs to come, weak carrier profits and still low freight volumes, in a period of constrained capital spending balanced against high input costs. However, the uptick in net orders the past two months has built the backlog queue and given industry leaders reason to believe that 2026 could be the year of transition that everyone has been hoping to have.”
