North America medium and heavy duty GVW Classes 5 and 6-7 commercial vehicle preliminary net orders for May were down from April as reported by ACT Research Co., LLC (ACT). Class 8 numbers, while still soft, were up from actual numbers in April. The final numbers, which will be released mid-June, will approach 18,000 units for heavy duty Class 8 trucks and 13,100 for medium duty Classes 5-7 vehicles. The preliminary net order numbers are typically accurate to within 5% of actual.

“As has been the case the past two months, the issue appears to center on credit-buying truckers’ confidence in the economy relative to the risk of taking out a sizeable loan,” said Kenny Vieth, president and senior analyst, ACT Research. “Highlighting the notion that the recent pullback in orders is a confidence rather than freight related issue, cancellations in recent months have remained at low levels. Beyond confidence, the demand check boxes remain positive, suggesting that the pull-back is temporary. Of course, we are approaching the period of the year that is associated with order weakness: July and August are typically the softest order months of the year,” he added.