Mack Defense of Upper Macungie Township, Pa., has landed a contract that will bring some work through the Lehigh Valley over the next five years.

Everybody knows about the up-and-down, cyclical nature of the heavy-duty truck market. But as Mack Trucks proved in the first quarter, sometimes you can be up — and down — at the same time.

If you look solely at Mack Trucks’ delivery total last year, you see a number that is only 4% — or about 800 trucks — higher than the company’s total in 2016, which was its worst statistical year since 2010.

Want an all-new Mack Anthem, without the six-figure price tag or commercial driver’s license needed to drive one? Well, you’re in luck.

Mack is back, upshifting into hiring mode for its massive Lower Macungie Township, Pa., assembly plant that already employs about 2,000 people.

UPS Inc., FedEx and the U.S. Postal Service have sizable operations in the Lehigh Valley area of Pennsylvania and have ramped up operations by hiring hundreds of seasonal employees to handle an expected surge in holiday orders.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf on Oct. 30 signed into law a major gambling expansion bill that allows qualifying truck stops to house up to five video gambling terminals.

Mack Trucks is hauling a heavy payload of orders, following a robust third quarter in which the manufacturer that assembles its vehicles in the Lehigh Valley received a flurry of interest from customers.

XPO Logistics is leasing a 628,475-square-foot warehouse in Palmer Township, Pa.

For the second consecutive quarter, Mack Trucks delivered fewer trucks than a year ago but received a surge in orders, as a result of an active construction segment and slowly improving freight environment in North America.