First February, then March, and now April. We reported last month (and the month before that) about how year-over-year truck sales increased by triple digit percentages. Would you believe that it has happened for the third time in a row? ACT Research and FTR have the numbers!
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.
The fine folks over at ACT Research and FTR Transportation Intelligence have reported tremendous news: the sales of heavy-duty commercial trucks have skyrocketed in the last 12 months.
We wrote a little under a month ago about how orders for new Class 8 trucks were on the upswing at the end of 2025, but now we have data showing the exact same phenomenon is applying for trucks that are older and have had previous owners.
It has been a while since we have used that word in the title of an article, “skyrocket.” It was commonplace after the dog days of the COVID-19 Pandemic for the trucking industry to kick back into high gear as months upon months of demand came crashing to dealerships all at once. Now a similar instance has happened, for an entirely different reason, and the verb “skyrocket” is once again justified.
Last month we wrote about both July and August 2023’s truck sales and wrote that it was highly unlikely that September 2023 would see a year-over-year increase considering just how high the ninth month of 2022 was. This happens to be the case, however, the numbers for 2023 are still the highest for the year, […]
Freight Transportation Research (FTR) has posted its finalized numbers for July and August of 2023 in regards to new Class 8 truck sales. While July was not much to write home about, August was indeed quite an interesting month from a statistical point of view.July 2023 NumbersFTR pins the number of sales in July 2023 […]
Remember when we used to provide you with updates regarding the number of truck orders for each month? There are two reasons why we have been lingering in reporting this for the past quarter. The first is that there may be a difference between the preliminary numbers and the final numbers reported for the month, […]
When we have written about the number of net truck orders for each month for the past two years or so, expectation and reality have almost always been divergent. Whether it is COVID-19, pent-up demand as a result of lower sales in months prior, or supply chain woes, sales have often smashed or fell short […]
When you consider that January and February tend to be the slowest months of the year for the trucking industry, the fact that the numbers did not change too much from the year prior is a good sign. FTR and ACT Research have the numbers.January 2023 NumbersFTR reports the January 2023 orders for big rigs […]
December 2022 marks the third month in a row of continuous decline for big rig orders, but when four months ago was a record month for sales, the industry still has plenty of diesel fuel left in its tank. FTR and ACT Research have the numbers.December 2022 NumbersACT Research has their preliminary numbers at 30,300 […]
November’s truck month sales are a repeat episode of October’s: the count is high, much higher than the 2021 equivalent, but has decreased from the month prior. ACT and FTR have the numbers!November 2022 NumbersACT has preliminary orders at 33,000 while FTR reports 34,300. While this is lower than October’s estimate of 43,200, it is […]
The month prior, September, was a record-breaking month for truck sales within the industry, so it was hardly feasible that October would be able to top it. While it predictably did not, it still outperformed the rest of the year by a wide margin. FTR has the numbers!October 2022 Sales NumbersFTR pins the preliminary net […]
When demand outpaces supply for an extended period of time, it is like a shaken bottle of soda. Eventually, it is going to erupt. According to the preliminary numbers provided by FTR, that is exactly what happened in September.September 2022 NumbersFTR estimates the sales for September 2022 to be 56,500 units. That is:169% more than […]
July 2022 was, as expected, a relatively weak month for truck sales. As such, it is hardly a surprise that the truck sales for August were significantly higher. FTR has the numbers.August 2022 Truck SalesFTR places their estimate for August 2022 truck sales at 21,400, which is an increase of about double what it was […]
We have been so busy with covering other aspects of the trucking industry that we let a monthly update slip through our fingers. To make up for it, here is a double feature covering the Class 8 sales for June and July, using numbers from FTR.June 2022 NumbersFTR pins the number of Class 8 truck […]
Class 8 sales have decreased slightly in May 2022, according to Freight Transportation Research (FTR), but FTR’s vice president of commercial vehicles Don Ake says he is not concerned about the slight lull in sales. Here are the numbers, and the reasoning.May 2022 Numbers and DetailsFTR pins the number of big rig sales in May […]
Trucking orders lulled for the month, as manufacturers continue to keep a tight backlog and prevent new orders from being added due to demand outpacing supply. ACT Research and FTR have the numbers!April 2022 NumbersACT Research pegs the sales at 15,800; FTR, 15,400. The two organizations, as usual, are very close with their approximations.These sales […]
ACT Research and FTR will often vary their estimates for truck sales by a difference of a few hundred each month, with the correct answer presumably somewhere in the middle. With recent events in the trucking industry, their jobs have become significantly easier. This is evident by the numbers the two organizations have found for […]
At this point it is the same old story: global supply chain shortages leading to trucks being produced at a rate that does not match demand. FTR and ACT Research have the numbers.February 2022 NumbersFTR pins the sales at 21,100; ACT Research, 21,000. This is perhaps the closest the two research organizations have been in […]
What had happened to the trailer market in January 2022 also happened to the new Class 8 market. With no new trucks in reserves, they are rolling off the production lot and going straight to work. FTR’s and ACT Research’s numbers are below. January 2022 Numbers The twin research organizations are very close in their […]
Another year has passed. While not as hectic as 2020, 2021 had its own set of challenges. Rather than having a hard time finding workers to put into trucks, now companies are scrambling to get as many trucks and parts as they can. December 2021 was pretty good news for Class 8 sales.The NumbersACT Research […]
It appears the supply chain shortages of everything from rubber to aluminum is starting to take its toll on the trucking industry, as the number of new Class 8 truck orders for November 2021 were, for lack of a better word, weak.November 2021 NumbersACT Research pins the number at 9,800 units, while FTR is a […]
This information has been out for a while now, but between port backlogs, infrastructure bills, and vaccine mandate news, it has been on the backburner. Backburner may be an appropriate description for the current state of the Class 8 market as well, as supply chain constraints are causing order numbers to fall and preorders to […]
Trailer sales ended their streak of consistently outperforming the same time last year in June. Growth is never infinite, and as such the truck sales streak, three months later, has finally ended. September 2021 Numbers ACT Research pegs the number of Class 8 truck sales at 27,400. FTR pins the sales number at 28,400. This […]
With Original Equipment Manufacturers now allowing orders for deliveries set in 2022, the floodgates have opened. August 2021 was one of the best months of the year for Class 8 truck orders.DetailsFTR has the net number estimated at 39,400. ACT estimates orders at 36,900. Whatever the actual number is, both research companies are confident that […]
Trailer orders might have ended their 2021 year-over-year increase streak in June, but the Class 8 big rig market is still going strong in July 2021. ACT and FTR have the estimates. Truck Sales July 2021 ACT Research pins the number at 25,800 units sold in the month; FTR, 26,500. The order numbers are ever […]
Since at least June 2020, each month of truck sales has been higher than the same month the year prior. We are now entering the anniversary of the “skyrocket” phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, where a delay in demand reared its head, so it is hard to say how long the streak will last. For […]
The two primary data collectors for Class 8 sales in the United States, ACT Research and FTR differ slightly on their estimates for May 2021 truck sales. Ultimately they can agree on one thing: it is a large increase from the same time last year. May 2021 Sales Numbers ACT has their estimate set at […]
For a majority of the past year, we have been writing about how the pent up demand for trucking services due to the coronavirus pandemic has caused the trucking industry to rebound with terms such as “on fire” and “skyrocket on top of a skyrocket”. Frankly, we are running out of terms to describe how well the trucking industry is performing right now. Exploding? Volcanic?
For the month prior, truck sales were either great or bad depending on if you looked at the increase from last year or last month, respectively. With February, truck sales have increased no matter the angle.The NumbersAccording to Freight Transportation Research (FTR), 44,000 Class 8 trucks were sold in February. This is a tiny 3% […]
ACT and FTR differ on their numbers for Class 8 truck sales by a few hundred each month, but their general messages are the same. This prior month’s message being that the trucking industry is cooling off from the holiday season, but still shows promise of being on fire.The NumbersACT has sales for January set […]
Freight Transportation Research Associates (FTR) released their data on new Class 8 truck sales for November 2020 on December 2nd. We predicted the numbers would stagnate and be approximately equal to those found in October, at around 40,100. To say the very least, we were wrong. The Data FTR reports preliminary data that says that […]
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) releases two statistics each month: one is the preliminary numbers (estimate) for the month prior, and the other is a more accurate count for three months prior. The solid numbers for September came in with November’s preliminaries, and while the former is essentially what the BLS has suspected, the […]
Freight Transportation Research Associates (FTR) has released its latest wave of sales information regarding new Class 8 trucks. While not a two-year high, October 2018 was higher, the numbers improving upon Septembers’ victory for the trucking industry is still phenomenal.The DataNew truck sales totaled approximately 40,100 for October, according to FTR. This is an 83% […]
According to Freight Transportation Research Associates (FTR), around 20,500 new trucks were sold in the month of August. Now the September numbers are in, and if you have been following the truck sales for the past few months, it should not surprise you. The Data New trucks sold for September according to FTR totaled 32,000. […]
Pardon the pun, but the trucking industry is on a roll. Trucking sales rose for yet another consecutive month. The Data Two studies, one from the Freight Transportation Research Associates (FTR) and the other from Americas Commercial Transportation Research Company (ACT), tell ever so slightly different stories. ACT estimates Class 8 truck sales for the […]
Here at TopMark Funding, we wrote about how we believed the coronavirus pandemic was ending soon. That article is almost two months old at this point, and the pandemic continues. The interesting thing is that despite all of the fear of the coronavirus pandemic for the past five or so months, the trucking industry continues […]
At the start of the year, we wrote an article laying out our predictions for 2020. Nobody could have predicted the wild ride 2020 has been so far, but news has broken that yet another prediction we had has turned out to not happen: new truck sales are on the rise. The Data Two studies, […]
