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With the much anticipated hours-of-service proposed rule changes announced, ACT Research team breaks down the 5 take-aways as well how this will impact carriers.

According to ACT Research’s recently released Transportation Digest, the Class 8 market is on the cusp of a significant correction. At the same time, the medium duty market continued to confound in May, with forward-looking indicators deteriorating and concurrent data suggesting moderate growth.

According to ACT Research’s recently released Transportation Digest, Class 8 retail sales and build are starting the summer at near-record high levels, but evidence supporting a change in direction continues to accumulate. At the same time, the medium duty market was a study of contrasts in April, even as new trailer orders fell to a nearly two-year low.

According to ACT Research’s recently released Transportation Digest, Class 8 retail sales and build remain at cycle highs, but signs are multiplying that the market momentum will start declining during the second half of this year. At the same time, net trailer orders in March were the weakest order volume since July of 2017, as many OEMs continue to be unwilling to fully open 2020 orderboards.

According to ACT Research’s recently released Transportation Digest, conditions in the Class 8 market are solid, benefitting from momentum generated in 2018 that should carry the market to peaks that are likely to take the industry to its highest non-prebuy levels ever. The Classes 5-7 market started 2019 with mixed results at high levels.

According to ACT Research’s recently released Transportation Digest, the Class 8 truck market started 2019 with powerful positive momentum, although uncertainty surrounding trade and tariffs and a slowing global economy are still causes for caution. In the Classes 5-7 market, the truck segment continued to buoy the total medium duty market. In other news, same dealer sales of used Class 8 equipment continued to struggle in December; sales remain well above year-to-date levels, however.

According to the recent released ACT Research’s Transportation Digest, the Class 8 truck market started 2019 with powerful positive momentum from a remarkable and record-setting 2018. In the Classes 5-7 market, the truck segment made yet another outsized contribution to the total medium duty market, perpetuating its growth. In other news, same dealer sales of used Class 8 equipment took a larger-than-expected hit in November, and trailer orders, while solid, are not following a normal seasonal path.

According to a recent release of ACT Research’s Transportation Digest, the Class 8 truck market continued to extend all-time records for backlog and cumulative annual orders. The medium duty market ran like a well-oiled machine in October, maintaining its momentum and pace. Additionally, same dealer sales of used Class 8 vehicles improved 2% in October. Despite a decline in the trailer order volume compared to the previous month, October was still the second strongest month in industry history, topped only by September.

The ACT For-Hire Trucking Survey Volume Index (seasonally adjusted) rebounded in October, to 55.9 from 51.8 in September, according to a recent release of ACT Research’s Transportation Digest. However, the report noted that this remains below the year-to-date average. The report, which combines proprietary data analysis from a wide variety of sources to paint a comprehensive picture of trends in transportation and commercial vehicle markets, also showed that the US economy is strong and growth is likely to remain near 3%, an above-trend pace, for several more quarters.