United States Trailers

Trailer market signals are connected, but they do not always move together.

1. One trailer market signal rarely tells the full story.

Orders, build, shipments, backlog, inventory, and cancellations each describe a different part of the cycle. ACT helps customers connect these indicators to better understand market direction and planning implications.

2. Trailer demand varies dramatically by segment.

Dry vans, refrigerated vans, flatbeds, tanks, dumps, lowbeds, chassis, containers, and specialty trailers can follow different demand patterns. Segment-level visibility helps teams understand which parts of the market are strengthening, slowing, or moving on a different timeline.

3. Backlog and build rates need to be read together.

A backlog can look strong or weak depending on current build rates, production timing, and order activity. ACT helps customers interpret backlog-to-build ratios in context.

4. Freight conditions influence trailer demand with a lag.

Trailer demand is affected by freight volumes, carrier profitability, fleet investment appetite, replacement timing, and equipment strategy. ACT connects trailer market indicators to broader freight and commercial vehicle signals to help customers understand where demand may be in the cycle.

5. OEM-reported market indicators provide earlier planning context than lagging signals alone.

What the United States Trailers report covers

The United States Trailers report gives customers a monthly view of U.S. trailer market activity across OEMs, trailer segments, and historical time periods.

Use the report to understand current market conditions, segment-level demand, production timing, backlog health, cancellation activity, factory shipments, inventory, and trailer cycle momentum.

What’s included

Each report opens with a concise narrative overview of current trailer market conditions, including:

• OEM sentiment
• Order trends
• Backlog movement
• Build pacing
• Cancellation activity
• Inventory changes
• Freight and carrier health
• Segment-level planning implications

Summary Observations

Each report opens with clear interpretation of:

• OEM sentiment

• Order trends

• Backlogs

• Build pacing

• Cancellation activity

• Inventory changes

• Freight and carrier health
  
  

Trailer Industry Market Statistics

For each segment and for the total trailer market, the report provides:

• Current month
• Year-to-date
• Month-over-month comparisons
• Year-over-year comparisons
• Three-month comparisons
• Annualized periods

Metrics include:

• Net orders
• Cancellations
• Backlog levels
• Build volumes
• Inventory
• Factory shipments
• Backlog-to-build ratios

These tables help support OEM operations, supplier planning, fleet demand tracking, investment analysis, and market-cycle monitoring.

Industry Graphs

Industry graphs provide context for how trailer demand connects to broader transportation market conditions, including:

• ACT U.S. Freight Composite
• Carrier net income
• Historical trailer net order trends

These indicators help customers understand how freight conditions, fleet profitability, and trailer demand interact across the cycle.

Build, Backlog, BL/BU & Cancellation Trends

Monthly charts help customers evaluate:

• Build trajectory and year-over-year change
• Total industry backlog movement
• Backlog-to-build ratios across cycles
• Cancellation activity as a percentage of backlog
• Segment-level production and demand movement

These visuals help teams monitor cycle movement and evaluate potential changes in demand, production timing, and market balance.

Segment Dashboards: Detailed Views by Trailer Type

Each major trailer category includes:

• Net orders

• Backlogs & BL/BU ratios

• Build trends

• Cancellation rates

• Multi-year cycle charts

• Units-per-day build pacing

• OEM plan vs. actual context

Segments covered:

• Dry Van

• Reefer

• Flatbed

• Dump

• Liquid Tank

• Bulk Tank

• Lowbed & Grain/Commodity trailers

• Total trailers

These dashboards support OEM sales teams, supplier capacity planning, investors, analysts, component manufacturers, dealers, fleets, and leasing firms.

OEM Build Plans

ACT consolidates OEM-reported build plans into monthly and quarterly views, giving customers visibility into expected production timing.

This supports:

• Capacity planning
• Materials procurement
• Staffing decisions
• Supplier planning
• Sales and revenue forecasting
• Customer communication
• Inventory and production planning

Why ACT for U.S. trailer market intelligence

OEM-reported market data

ACT’s trailer market data is sourced directly from trailer manufacturers, giving customers a consistent monthly view of orders, build, backlog, cancellations, shipments, and inventory.

Segment-level clarity

The report covers major trailer types with segment-level dashboards that help customers compare demand, production, and backlog movement across the market.

Cycle-aware analysis

ACT connects trailer indicators to freight conditions, carrier profitability, build plans, and broader equipment market signals to help customers understand market-cycle movement.

Trusted market perspective

ACT is recognized across transportation, commercial vehicle, equipment, finance, manufacturing, and investment markets for its forecasting discipline, market relationships, and analyst perspective.

Who uses this report — and how it supports planning

Different teams use ACT’s United States Trailers report in different ways, but all rely on it to understand current trailer market conditions, segment performance, production timing, and cycle signals.

OEMs

• Plan production and build schedules
• Evaluate segment-level demand
• Monitor order and cancellation activity
• Track backlog and inventory conditions
• Support customer and dealer conversations

Suppliers & Tier-1/Tier-2 Manufacturers

• Align capacity and material purchases with OEM build patterns
• Forecast component demand by trailer segment
• Monitor production timing and build expectations
• Support customer planning conversations with market data

Fleets & Leasing Companies

• Evaluate market conditions affecting trailer availability
• Understand replacement timing and order-cycle movement
• Monitor segment-level supply and demand
• Support fleet, rental, and leasing planning decisions

Dealers & Remarketers

• Forecast inventory needs
• Track cycle turning points
• Monitor segment-level demand and availability
• Support sales, pricing, and customer conversations

Investors & Financial Institutions

• Monitor trailer market health
• Evaluate production, demand, and backlog signals
• Track carrier profitability trends and freight-related equipment demand
• Support investment and credit analysis

Logistics & Freight Analysts

• Integrate trailer ordering patterns with freight and rate models
• Monitor equipment signals that may affect capacity
• Evaluate how trailer demand connects to freight-cycle movement