North America heavy GVW Class 8 commercial vehicle preliminary net orders for October surprised on the upside, improving both month over month and year over year, as reported by ACT Research Co., LLC (ACT). The final numbers, which will be released mid-November, will approach 27,700 units for heavy duty Class 8 trucks and 13,300 for medium Classes 5-7 vehicles. The preliminary net order numbers are typically accurate to within 5% of actual.
 
“At this level of order activity, there is probably some incremental fleet growth taking place,” said Steve Tam, ACT vice president-commercial vehicle sector. “The underlying fundamentals in the heavy truck market are all healthy. Fleet equipment is old, trucker profitability is good, used truck values are strong, and financing is generally available. The strength in orders supports ACT’s forecast for next year,” he added.