U.S. Trucking Companies Slash Fleets Amid "Tepid Shipping Demand"

For months now we have been writing about the collapse of class 8 truck orders. For the month of September, net class 8 orders were down 16% YoY while LTM orders were down a staggering 41%. In fact, the level of trailing 12-month net orders is the lowest since January 2011 with YoY changes now in negative territory for 19 consecutive months.

Therefore, it should come as little surprise that large trucking companies in the U.S. are being forced to slash fleets amid slumping demand and slack capacity. According to the Wall Street Journal, several U.S. trucking companies, including Swift, Werner and Covenant, have all been forced to cut 1,000s of trucks from their fleets as "overcapacity has driven down pricing." Of course, all this means that class 8 truck manufactures are unlikely to see an uptick in new orders anytime in the near future with Werner promising it won’t add trucks “until they see meaningful improvement in the freight and rate markets.”

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