FTR reports preliminary North American Class 8 net orders for October remained elevated for the second consecutive month, coming in at 43,200 units. October order activity was -23% m/m and +77% y/y, with Class 8 orders now totaling 271,000 units for the last 12 months.

Net orders in October continue to solidify the notion that there remains a tremendous amount of pent-up replacement demand in the market due to the constricted production environment of the past two years that has limited many fleets from replacing aged equipment.

Charles Roth, commercial vehicle analyst for FTR, commented, “OEMs are now filling build slots well into Q2 and the early part of Q3 2023. Component shortages continue to be a week-to-week issue; however, the overall sentiment from manufacturers is optimistic that improvements will be made in the coming months and throughout the first half of next year.

“October was the turning point for the Class 8 market. While we face headwinds in the freight market, overall fleet sentiment remains optimistic. While some OEMs have indicated that they have implemented allocation plans for dealers, the retail channel is another segment of the market that has yet to be able to maintain sufficient levels of inventory due to the limited availability of supply.

“With two extremely strong months of net orders, there is the potential that we see a gradual decrease month over month in net orders as we close out the year.”