The Trucker reported that heavy-duty new truck sales in March topped 17,000 and were the best to date for 2012, and also the best since October 2011.  This also made March the second best single month in five years.

According to the report, figures provided to The Trucker by Ward’s Automotive, indicated that Class 8 sales were 17,308 trucks in the United States, up 12.3% from February and up 33% from March 2011.

The report also indicates that though March, 46,845 Class 8 trucks have been sold in the U.S. — a 46.6% improvement over the first three months of 2011 and the first quarter total is 115% higher than the sales total for the same period in 2009.
 
Daimler Trucks North America’s Freightliner nameplate led the field, selling 5,023 trucks, a 12.8% decline from a very strong February and a 0.8% improvement from the year before.