Paccar’s 3Q Profit More Than Doubles

Truck and engine maker Paccar Inc. said Tuesday its third-quarter profit more than doubled from a year ago, on higher truck sales.

Net income rose to $281.6 million, or 77 cents per share, from $119.9 million, or 33 cents, a year ago. Revenue jumped to a record $4.26 billion, from $2.54 billion.

Paccar held its industrywide 2011 North American Class 8 truck sales forecast to between 180,000 and 200,000 trucks, and its “customers are benefiting from higher freight tonnage and improved freight rates,” Paccar Executive Vice President Dan Sobic said in a statement.

For the nine months of 2011, Paccar — the parent company of Kenworth Truck Co. and Peterbilt Motors Co., as well as Europe-based DAF — said it had a Class 8 market share of 27.7% in the U.S. and Canada, up a percentage point from the first half of the year.