Class 8 trucks in North America have risen in popularity throughout the years, but in July they rose at an exponentially higher rate. This is concluded based on the number of sales of the truck type in the month. In July, there were approximately 16,000 Class 8 trucks purchased. This number was a 45% jump in sales year-over-year. This was the highest year-to-year comparison jump seen in all of 2023.

So far in 2023, 4 months out of the year have shown an increase in comparing their year-to-year sales.

There are a number of factors that play into the success of a month. However, those have to be thrown out of consideration for July’s numbers. July is typically the slowest month for orders. April and May commonly are the leaders in sales, but this year July blew both months out of the water.

Classes 5-7 also showed a pretty good increase rate in July, being up 21%. Folks in the trucking industry are very happy with these trends, especially given the fact that they hold such low expectations for July regularly.

Magnus Koeck, the Vice President of strategy, marketing, and brand management at Volvo Trucks North America, spoke about how most of the trucking pull is coming from Canada actually rather than the U.S. An analyst at FTR Inc, an economic and freight forecasting firm, placed their guess that rather than a 45% increase, there was actually a 25% increase.

In addition to the surprise success during July for truck sales, all major manufacturers have completed their build slots. They typically would have open build slots by now, but ever since the Covid-19 pandemic, they have been able to perfectly complete their build slots.

Additionally, a lot of manufacturers are considering opening up their production levels due to the next several fiscal quarters looking good for them.

Typically, companies open their books in September, but a lot of the companies are getting pressured by clients to open them up sooner. Because of that, it looks like at least some companies will actually open up early and we will see a stronger August than we usually do.