Trailer Orders Soar in November to Two-Year High, ACT Reports
This story appears in the Jan. 3 print edition of Transport Topics.
Fueled by growth in dry vans, net trailer orders in the United States reached a two-year high in November of 21,314 units, ACT Research reported.
The month’s total is 215% higher than orders placed during November 2009 and is also 23% above the previous month, said ACT, which is based in Columbus, Ind.
“Seeing orders of 21,000 during November is just really a continuation of an ongoing trend of strengthening orders that we’ve seen throughout 2010,” said Kenny Vieth, president of ACT. He added that because excess capacity has gone out of the market and truckers are now making money, they want to start replacing some of their old equipment.
Net trailer orders, which are total orders minus cancellations, have topped year-ago levels in each of the first 11 months of 2010, ACT said. This is due mostly to exceptionally easy comparisons with 2009, which was one of the worst years on record for the trailer industry.
Demand for all types of trailer equipment improved in November, compared with the prior year, ACT said. However, the increase was not equal across all categories.
Dry vans, which make up the bulk of the U.S. trailer fleet, are in great demand, while demand for flatbed and platform trailers “are up only modestly,” compared with 2009, Vieth told Transport Topics.
In the September-to-November period, the latest three-month period data is available, dry-van orders are up 217%, compared with the same months of 2009.
One trailer dealer said he was noticing a surge in dry-van orders.
“We have, especially in the last six months, seen increased activity in the dry-freight segment,” said Mark Taylor, president of CRTS Inc., Raleigh, N.C. “I would say the fourth quarter of this year is probably going to be our strongest quarter” of 2010.
CEO Thomas Crowder said CRTS has “done a lot better” in 2010 than the prior year, with sales up about “20% across the board.”
Because of TT’s early holiday deadlines, manufacturers including Wabash National Corp., Utility Trailer Manufacturing Co., Great Dane Trailers and Hyundai Translead could not be reached for comment.
Looking ahead, both ACT and the CRTS executives said trailer demand should remain strong.
“With rising trucker profits and deferred capital investment, the stage is set for healthy trailer demand in 2011,” Vieth said in ACT’s trailer report issued Dec. 23.
CRTS’ Taylor said new federal regulations, specifically the revamped hours-of-service rule for commercial drivers and the Compliance Safety Accountability program, could provide the trailer market a further boost during 2011.
“That could possibly help the trailer industry, if they shorten the hours of service,” Taylor said. “There could possibly be more demand on pickup and delivery of spotted trailers, or dropped trailers at customer facilities.”
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration last week issued its HOS proposal, which could reduce driving time to 10 hours.
Meanwhile, the government’s CSA program, which includes ratings criteria for equipment, could push fleets to start replacing trailers at an even faster pace than they already are.
CSA is likely to catch fleets that have been running older equipment longer without proper maintenance upkeep, Crowder predicted.
