President Donald Trump sits in the driver’s seat of a semi-truck as he welcomes truckers and CEOs to the White House, Thursday, March 23, 2017, to discuss healthcare. (Official White House Photo by Benjamin Applebaum)
The booming Trump Economy is creating massive demand for big rigs. Orders hit a record for the second month in a row in August, and the backlog of truck orders is the longest it has ever been.
The Wall Street Journal‘s Eric Phillips writes:
- Fleets last month ordered 53,100 Class 8 trucks, the largest vehicles used to haul goods on long-distance routes, according to a preliminary report from ACT Research.
- The August peak in orders followed a seven-month ordering spree that drove equipment manufacturers in July to open up 2019 slots for new orders, months ahead of their usual schedule.
- Shipments by truck and rail rose 10.6% in July compared with the same month in 2017, while freight spending soared 17.9%, according to Cass Information Systems Inc., which processes freight bills.
- Cass wrote that demand is significantly exceeding capacity across most modes of freight transportation.
Read more here.
