Demand for commercial vehicles remained healthy in August as 43,100 total North American Class 5-8 orders were booked. Over the course of the past 12 months, North American Class 5-8 net orders have totaled 531,500 units, an improvement of 20 percent (or 90,000 units) compared to the preceding 12-month period.

August’s preliminary 17,700 North American Classes 5-7 net orders represented the best medium-duty vehicle order volume since April 2014. “That volume represented an improvement of 12 percent from July, but was also the fourth-consecutive miss compared to year-ago volumes, dropping 4 percent, compared to August 2013,” said Kenny Vieth, ACT’s president and senior analyst.

“At 25,400 units, August marks the third consecutive month of atypically robust orders for Class 8 at a time of the year when orders are usually soft,” Vieth said. “This ongoing strength is in line with continued reports of rising freight volumes and healthy freight rate gains for truckers. Seasonal adjustment pushes the month’s order volume to even higher,” he added.