October Trailer Orders Dip to 17,384, But Pace Quickens for Plants, Retailers

New orders for commercial trailers dipped 0.8% in October from the year-ago level after a rise in cancellations, but manufacturers and retail sellers reported strong late October and early November activity.

The 17,384 orders in October did rise 6% above the September total of 16,405, but declined from the 17,516 trailers that truckers ordered in October 2010, ACT Research Co., Columbus, Ind., reported Nov. 22.

“If we look at new orders before cancellations, they were 19,408 in October,” Steve Tam, vice president of ACT’s commercial vehicle sector, told Transport Topics. “Cancellations were higher than the normal monthly rate of 5%.”

Customers have placed orders for 178,724 new trailers in the first 10 months of 2011, a 43% increase from the corresponding period last year, ACT reported.

“It was slow for the first several weeks of October and then picked up to become a very good month,” David Giesen, vice president of sales and marketing at Stoughton Trailers, Stoughton, Wis., told Transport Topics. “We didn’t get any cancellations, and then November really boomed for us. We expect our market share for these two months will be pretty good.”

“We were still in the summer doldrums in September and early October, but it started picking up later in October and into early November,” Chris Hammond, vice president of dealer sales at Great Dane Trailers, Savannah, Ga., told TT. “October was very good, and November has been even better.”

Hammond said the slight decline in October orders industrywide was important, “but we think the 6% increase from September was very good.”

ACT’s Tam explained that “much of the October cancellation activity was reported to come from repositioning of backlog from 2011 into 2012, as it was offset by replacement order bookings.”

Thomas Heitzman, vice president of sales at Premier Trailer Leasing Inc., which has 22 locations, with corporate headquarters in Grapevine, Texas, said October and November have been good, both in dry vans and in the oil business.

“Last year, delivery fleets had one surge that began in September and went into the fourth quarter,” Heitzman said. “Christmas started early this year, and we’re expecting to see one more lift for equipment from fleets right after Thanksgiving, because they believe the stores will be restocking.”

Heitzman said the oil business in the region also has surged.

“This year, we’ve seen a continued increase in flatbed and other trailers because of new drilling for oil, natural gas and shale rock,” he said. “October was a very good month, and it’ll be strong through the rest of the year.”

“My leasing business is up probably 65% this October over last October, rental was up about the same and sales were up about 50%,” Dale Broadrick, owner of Fleetco Inc., Nashville, Tenn., told TT.

He said Fleetco has about 1,500 trailers, nearly all dry vans and containers, in its leasing and rental fleet.

“I’ve been in this business for 40 years, and I never saw a year worse than 2008, when business dropped 75%,” Broadrick said. “Then, 2009 was a little better, 2010 a little better than that, but this year was a complete turnaround.”

Broadrick, who deals mainly with medium- and small-size fleets, said that all of his customers were just replacing aged trailers, not expanding.

“The market is still unsure,” Broadrick said, “and many people are still scared.”

Great Dane’s Hammond also was cautious.

“We’re going to need housing starts and car builds to start coming back to their old levels before people really get excited,” Hammond said. “But then again, this year was better than last year, which was better than ’09, and next year will be better than this year.”

“I would say that both quoting and order activity has been very strong,” Charles Mudd, president of Vanguard National Trailer Corp., Monon, Ind., told TT. “I feel, in my opinion, that economic news in the past two weeks has been easing a lot of the apprehension for next year.”

Mudd said that, until recently, “everyone you met with talked gloom and doom.”

“I feel especially there has been a more positive outlook for next year that the U.S. is on a path of continuous growth — not great growth, but still growth,” Mudd said. “This has been reflected in both quoting and ordering activity.”

Glenn Harney, chief sales officer of Hyundai Translead, San Diego, said that October and early November also had been good order months for his company.

“Most of our orders came after the [economic] news improved,” Harney said. “However, none of the customers directly tied the event to the order. They still credit freight volume as the key.”

All manufacturers said they had most build slots filled for the first quarter of 2012 and already had many spots taken in the second quarter.

In third quarter this year, “new trailer shipments increased to 13,600, representing the highest shipment quarter since 2006,” Dick Giromini, CEO of trailer builder Wabash National Corp., Lafayette, Ind., said Nov. 1 in the company’s third-quarter earnings report.