The decline in Class 8 truck orders the first three months of the year is not evident in the sales figures yet as OEMs continue to work through a backlog of orders that may not be filled until late this year, if even then.
In March, OEMs and their dealers sold 22,884 Class 8 trucks in the United States, an increase of 15% over the previous month and 17.8% over the same month last year when sales totaled 19,384, according to WardsAuto.
To date in 2019, sales are up 24.5% with 62,884 units being sold thus far compared with 50,529 for the same period in 2018.
Mack recorded the largest gain month-over-month with sales of 1,623 compared with 1,163 last month, an increase of 39.6%.
International had the increase in March 2019 compared to March 2018 with 3,476 sold in 2019 compared with 2,143 in March 2018.
International also has the largest year-to-date increase at 43.1% with sales of 9,365 the first three months of 2019 compared with 6,546 during the same period in 2018.
Freightliner leads in market share in 2019 at 40.7%, up from 37.7% the first three months of 2018.
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