Orders for heavy-duty trucks in North America fell back to the lowest level in 17 months in December as a long surge in fleet expansion that has fueled big factory backlogs ran out of steam. Companies last month ordered 21,300 Class 8 trucks, the big rigs that carry most of the country’s freight on highways between cities and distribution centers, the ACT Research group reported Friday. That is a 24% decline from November and 43% less than December 2017, when truckers were in the early stages of the strongest ordering binge...

Source: Wall Street Journal January 04, 2019 21:22 UTC