semiconductor shortage

Daimler built excess electric truck capacity in ‘22

LAS VEGAS — Daimler Truck North America created capacity to build 2,000 Class 8 battery-electric trucks last year. But sales fell far short because of a lack of charging infrastructure.

“We had in our mind the market demand was going to be X based on discussions with customers,” CEO John O’Leary told reporters in a roundtable Tuesday before the opening of the Manifest supply chain conference. 

“We installed the capacity and then, all of a sudden, [it was] ‘Whoa, wait a minute. I know I told you I...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/daimler-built-more-electric-truck-capacity-in-22-than-chargers-could-support

Daimler Truck CEO calls for strong Class 8 market in ’23

Class 8 trucks orders in queue look healthy heading into the new year even as a September order record resulted in lower but still solid bookings in the last three months of 2022.

“The demand that we saw out there for ’22 that none of us were able to build, that will continue in ’23,” John O’Leary, president and CEO of Daimler Truck North America, told FreightWaves. “They’re very committed to make those buys this year regardless of what the economic headwinds may look like.”

The average age of...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/daimler-truck-ceo-calls-for-strong-class-8-market-in-23

Small cars are an endangered species — blame the supply chain

automotive

If you are yearning for a wee Honda Civic, you’ll be waiting a while. 

That’s according to Aric Curtice, a sales and leasing consultant at Superior Honda of Omaha, Nebraska. He’s warned recent customers asking for a Honda Civic that they’ll have to wait up to two months for their vehicles. Wannabe pickup truck or SUV drivers, though, only have to wait about a month. 

Across the U.S., there’s a greater supply of big vehicles than of small cars. A Cox Automotive analysis of September new-vehicle...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/small-cars-are-an-endangered-species-blame-the-supply-chain

Freightliner computer brain thefts hit drivers, dealers and auctions

Combo of damaged interior of Freightliner Cascadia with the computer brain removed.

Larry Gilliam returned to Norfolk, Virginia, from a drayage run to Georgia on Monday to find one of his trucks with a hole punched in the passenger-side window. He thought a thief wanted to steal the radio from his 2105 Freightliner Cascadia.

Then he looked closer. The dash had been pried open. Wiring jutted from a gaping hole where the truck’s common powertrain control module (CPC) used to be. 

The brute force brain surgery left Gilliam’s truck immovable. It is one of hundreds of similar thefts...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/freightliner-cascadia-computer-brain-thefts-widespread

Someone is stealing Daimler Truck powertrain control modules

A black and yellow powertrain module in the foreground with a Freightline truck behind it.

A rash of thefts of semiconductor-loaded powertrain control modules from parked Freightliner and Western Star trucks is turning the tractors into oversize paperweights. Daimler Truck North America is going after the bad guys but has few leads.

The rip-offs of common powertrain control module 4 units relate to the ongoing shortage of microchips. Harvesting and reprogramming the modules allow them to work in other trucks, Daimler said.

“The theft of CPC modules is a crime that threatens the...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/thefts-of-powertrain-modules-plague-daimler-truck

Semiconductor fears chill Class 8 orders in April

Row of blue Peterbilt Class 8 trucks at dealership

Class 8 truck orders fell to their lowest level in seven months in April. Manufacturers, wary about ongoing supply chain disruptions, held off accepting bookings as they fret over how many trucks they can deliver in 2023.

On a preliminary basis, truck makers accepted 15,400 to 15,800 new orders. That’s according to industry data trackers to ACT Research and FTR Transportation Intelligence. The monthly average had been about 21,300 over the past seven months. On a rolling 12-month basis, Class 8...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/semiconductor-fears-chill-class-8-orders-in-april

Freight pullback isn’t making used Class 8 trucks any cheaper

Truck with open hoods on auction lot

The recent pullback in spot freight rates isn’t affecting the sky-high prices of used Class 8 trucks.

Some higher-mileage used models sold for less in March, but the undersupply of equipment shows no signs of easing. 

“Any downward movement in the tender rejection rate since February hasn’t correlated to a change in used truck pricing,” Chris Visser, commercial vehicles senior analyst and product manager at J.D. Power Valuation Services, told FreightWaves. 

Changes to market conditions usually...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/freight-pullback-isnt-making-used-class-8-trucks-any-cheaper

United Road Services battles inefficiency while moving 4M cars a year

Three United Road car haulers on the highway

PLYMOUTH, Mich. — Mark Anderson draws a triangle on a piece of paper and labels the three points A, B and C, illustrating how his company choreographs the movement of 4 million cars and trucks a year.

But the pandemic and the supply chain crisis played havoc with the model, creating a huge efficiency problem for the president and CEO of United Road Services.

“We go from point A and we have a plant here and we send trucks this way to point B where there’s a port. And we get trucks there and we go...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/united-road-services-battles-inefficiency-while-moving-4m-cars-a-year

Supply chain weakness hits January Class 8 truck orders

Class 8 truck orders fell in January as manufacturers matched orders to what they could produce while avoiding further swelling of their backlogs.

A lack of visibility into supply chain bottlenecks makes caution the common theme among OEMs. Most are focused on finishing and shipping red-tagged trucks that piled up in inventory in 2021. Demand for new trucks far outstrips supply, a condition unfamiliar to an industry where the opposite is most often true.

Watch now: Recapping 2021 Class 8 truck...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/supply-chain-weakness-hits-january-class-8-truck-orders

Anatomy of a truck order: Sometimes you just turn the page

Month after month, industry analysts report new Class 8 preliminary and net truck orders, snapshots of an industry in which peaks and valleys come about every two years of an economic cycle.

Preliminary orders don’t take into account orders that a fleet, or a manufacturer, might cancel for any number of reasons. Net orders, which follow the first cut by about 15 days, lock down a better read on what happened. The two numbers directionally correlate. Cancellations are a barometer of how customers...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/anatomy-of-a-truck-order-sometimes-you-just-turn-the-page

+ More
Join Our Newsletter
Enter your email to receive a weekly round-up of shipping news.
icon
By subscribing, you agree with our privacy policy and our terms of service.