April Trailer Orders Hit a 30 Year Low
Ready for more bad April numbers? We’ve heard about rates and volumes crashing, oil prices tanking, and GDP registering its largest decline since 2008. Now, FTR is reporting that trailer numbers took a huge hit last month.
In April, trailer orders fell to 300 (not a typo). Under normal circumstances, that would be about as much as one larger fleet orders. Trailer orders shrank by 95% from March to April, and by 98% since April of last year, marking a 30 year low. In February of 2020, 13,000 orders were placed.
Dry vans have suffered the most under state lockdowns, according to FTR, although refrigerated vans are not having an easy time either. Last week, FTR noted that although trucking has likely already bottomed out, freight activity levels are still low.
A freight recovery hinges on a reopening economy, and particularly, industrial production coming back online. As Frank Maly, ACT Director of Commercial Vehicle Transportation Analysis said in a statement, ‘The short- to medium-term outlook will be entirely dependent upon the return of business to some level of normality and stability, which will drive freight demand for both manufacturing and consumer spending.’
Today’s announcement likely will not be the end of the onslaught of bad news. The coronavirus, and the response to it, has wreaked havoc on the economy, both in the United States and abroad. Trailer numbers are one more detail in a much larger puzzle, and the fallout may continue for the foreseeable future. What is clear now is that we have a huge hole to dig ourselves out of.
