Class 8 Orders Show Consecutive Triple-Digit Growth Months
Readers may remember that in March we wrote about February 2026’s numbers, how Class 8 sales numbers for the month were anywhere between 156% and 159% from February 2025. Well, that has happened again, and so we are writing about March 2026 in April.
Details
ACT Research, who reported the slightly more conservative number of 156% year-over-year growth before, now pins the number at around a 126% increase, or 37,200 units ordered.
“After one of the best Class 8 order numbers in history in February, it is [a] little surprising March preliminary data retreated, but only slightly, to a still very strong 37,200 units,” said Carter Vieth, a research analyst working at ACT Research. “The Iran war poses major risks to the economic outlook, but tight for-hire capacity and a return of the driver shortage have helped insulate spot rates from the negative impacts of rising diesel prices.”
FTR Transportation, reporting 159% for February, also had an even better outlook for March than ACT Research did, pinning the number at 137% year-over-year and 38,200 units ordered.
“The 2026 order season from September 2025 through March 2026 is now up 15% [year over year], representing a clear inflection from the double-digit declines seen earlier in the cycle,” said senior analyst of commercial vehicles at FTR Dan Moyer. “While monthly variability is likely to persist, improving cumulative order trends and a strengthening freight backdrop suggest demand is becoming more durable and less reliant on short-term catch-up dynamics.”
Unfortunately, the one downside to these rip-roaring indicators of trucking prosperity is that the month-over-month has decreased by approximately 19% when comparing February 2026 to March 2026, but that is par for the course when a prior month involves a skyrocket.
Conclusion
As stated by analysts at both ACT Research and FTR Transportation stated, the increase in sales compared to 2025 less of a result of short term reactionary shocks to latest news, but instead based on the greatest indicator of the trucking industry’s success possible: the demand to move goods from point A to point B. As such, it is possible we may just see a similar triple-digit percent year-over-year increase in April.
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