According to ACT Research’s recently released Transportation Digest, the 2020 heavy-duty truck market will close on a robust note, setting the stage for 2021.

“Next year will certainly show significant year-over-year growth, as the industry builds on the remarkable momentum seen in the second half of 2020 rebound,” said Kenny Vieth, ACT’s President and Senior Analyst. “We are pleased that we called for a second half 2020 recovery, even in the darkest days of the COVID recession, putting the timing and direction for the rebound in the forecasters’ win column. But candor makes us admit to surprise at the steepness of the growth trajectory over the last two quarters.”

Vieth continued, “Almost as surprising as the onset of the pandemic and the initial reaction of businesses, households and government authorities in the spring has been the speed of the recovery for the transportation industry.”  He added, “While the toll in human lives and misery has been high through the entire episode, particularly the setbacks for many service-related sectors that continues to this day, goods-related businesses, from construction to manufacturing to distribution, have seen business snap back, in some cases exceeding pre-pandemic levels.”

Vieth concluded, “Clearly, the coronavirus continues to shape the heavy-duty business environment as we close 2020 and start 2021. But we also think it will have lingering impacts that will stretch through the five-year forecast horizon.”

The report, which combines proprietary ACT data and analysis from a wide variety of sources, paints a comprehensive picture of trends impacting transportation and commercial vehicle markets. This monthly report is designed as a quick look at transportation insights for use by fleet and trucking executives, reviewing top-level considerations such as for-hire indices, freight, heavy and medium duty segments, the US trailer market, used truck sales information, and an overview of the US macro economy.