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Truck Orders Hit 13-Month High in January

With the preliminary numbers rolling in from ACT Research and FTR, it is looking like January was a banner month for both heavy- and medium-duty truck orders.

The early numbers on Class 5-8 truck orders for January hit a 13-month high of 45,300 units total, a 27% improvement from the same month in 2016, according to ACT Research. Class 8 truck orders are projected to reach a 14-month high, with 22,200 units for the month.

FTR expects the strong fourth quarter truck order increase to help boost first quarter build rates.

“It is unusual for January orders to be higher than any of the preceding Q4 months. This indicates fleets are more confident in market conditions than they were four months ago,” said Don Ake, vice president of commercial vehicles at FTR. “OEMs should begin to fill in their production schedules and now February builds look to be much better than previous months.”

Class 5-7 orders hit an 11-month high in January with 23,000 units, rising 32% year-over-year, according to ACT Research.

“As the year's opening stanza is typically one of the weakest in terms of order activity, seasonal adjustment provides a strong boost, pushing the adjusted net order volume to 24,450 units,” said Kenny Vieth, ACT's president and senior analyst. “To put that number into context, January's seasonally adjusted MD net order total was the best monthly reading in nine years, or since February 2008.”

Related: What Will the Class 8 Market Look Like in 2017?

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Texas Fuel Provider Adds Beaumont Location

Photo courtesy of O'Rourke Petroleum.

Texas fuel and lubricant provider O'Rourke Petroleum has expanded its operations in southeast Texas by adding a facility and seven delivery trucks in Beaumont, the company announced.

O'Rourke Petroleum is adding a 20,000-square-foot warehouse and lubricant storage area that will enhance its capability to deliver fuel and lubricants to fleet customers in the area known as the Golden Triangle.

The company sells all grades of gasoline and diesel to fleets for use in larger trucks, vans, and buses. The company has a fleet fuel management program supported by fleet cards. The company also provides lubricants such as passenger car motor oil, heavy-duty engine oil, greases, hydraulic fluid, and transmission oil. The company has distributed Shell lubricants since 1998.

O'Rourke Petroleum is based in Houston and operates facilities in Corpus Christi, Dallas/Fort Worth, Midland/Odessa, San Antonio, Tyler, and Victoria.

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Goodyear Adds Endurance Tire, Service Management Tool

Photo: Goodyear

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company is rolling out its new Endurance LHD long-haul tire and a new service-management tool.

The Goodyear Endurance LHD will launch later this year and the company also plans to offer three SmartWay-approved Kelly Armorsteel long-haul tires. Also available are the Goodyear Endurance WHA waste-haul tire, Endurance WHA retread, Endurance RSA for regional and urban delivery, Fuel Max RSA for regional fleets, Marathon long-haul tires, Workhorse mixed-service tire, and UniCircle retreads.

The company is also offering a new service management tool that's built on the Goodyear Smart Tech App. The tool will help dealers manage resources more effectively. It features a live dashboard that reports the location and status of road service technicians.

Goodyear will add Bluetooth capabilities to the tool, which will allow road service technicians to check and record fleet tire data electronically. The company also announced an OTR Proposal Developer to help dealers' sales teams make it easier to sell Goodyear OTR tires.

“Goodyear is the only tire company that offers the 'Total Solution' of trusted products, a nationwide network, reliable services and fleet management tools – all designed to help fleets lower their operating costs,” said Gary Medalis, marketing director.

For more information, click here.

Related: Choosing Tires for On and Off the Road

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Economic Watch: Job Growth Continues as Manufacturing Improves

New figures show employers in the U.S. continue to add people to their payrolls at a healthy pace. And there is mounting evidence that the nation's manufacturing sector is coming out of the doldrums as businesses increase their investment in capital goods.

Employment in the U.S. continued along its path of gains last month, with a Labor Department report released Friday showing 227,000 nonfarm jobs were added in January. The number of jobs added during the month is the highest since September. Trucking, however, trimmed its employment rolls.

The number of overall job additions was far more than the 175,000 forecast by a poll of analysts. At the same time, the unemployment rate inched up to 4.8% as more people began looking for work.

As for trucking there were 1,400 job losses last month in the for-hire sector, contributing to an overall 4,000-job loss in the wider transportation and warehousing sector. However, unlike trucking, the warehousing and storage niche added 9,400 jobs during the month, while 7,400 jobs were cut from the couriers and messengers category.

Outside of transportation, the overall gain largely reflected construction employment soaring 36,000 after a 2,000 gain in December, while manufacturing employment rose a modest 5,000 compared to the 11,000 gain the previous month.

Overall wage growth in January moderated to an average of 3 cents per hour compared to double that number in December. However, over the past 12 months average wages are up 2.5%, only slightly higher than the level of retail inflation, and down from the December 12-month rate of a 2.8% increase.

“Today's report indicates continued robust increases in employment going into 2017,” said Paul Ferley, assistant chief economist at RBC Economics. “Such bodes well for overall gross domestic product growth to continue at an above-potential rate as prevailed over the second half of 2016.”