North America heavy duty GVW Class 8 commercial vehicle preliminary net orders for June, as reported by ACT Research Co., LLC remained soft. Classes 5-7 net orders also fell below trend, but the decline was expected, as medium-duty activity typically tapers off during the summer months. The final numbers, which will be released mid-July, will approach 16,500 units for heavy duty Class 8 trucks and 12,900 for medium duty Classes 5-7 vehicles. The preliminary net order numbers are typically accurate to within 5% of actual.

“The explanation for the soft patch remains of the ‘death by a thousand cuts’ variety,” said Kenny Vieth, president and senior analyst, ACT Research. “As has been the case since late February/early March, the issue appears to boil down to credit-buying truckers’ confidence in the economy relative to the risk of taking out a sizeable loan to buy a truck. To that end, risk, economic or political, domestic or global, remains high, and memories of 2009 are still fresh.”

ACT is the recognized leading publisher of new and used commercial vehicle (CV) industry data, market analysis and forecasting services for the North American market, as well as the China CV market. ACT’s CV services are used by all major North American truck and trailer manufacturers and their suppliers, as well as the banking and investment community.