Final North American Class 8 net orders totaled 37,200 units in November, on very strong tractor demand, as published in ACT Research’s latest State of the Industry: NA Classes 5-8 report.
“Given the generationally weak profits experienced by for-hire carriers in 2024, and the relative youth of private fleet, tractor orders of 28.7k units are a high-side surprise. While some of this month’s strong orders likely came from post-election optimism in for-hire, we suspect that private fleets worried about future supply chain disruptions continued as the larger driver of tractor demand in November. Vocational truck orders totaled 8.6k units, another historically strong number, suggesting the vocational market is jumping in the queue ahead of EPA’27 and GHG-3,” Kenny Vieth, president and senior analyst of ACT Research, said. “Total Classes 5-7 orders decreased 28% Y/Y to 17.1K units. Orders have slowed the past three months, and that trend is likely to continue as record-high inventories take some air away from new orders.”
