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The shutdown issue has not gone away for truck buyers, analyst Steve Tam cautions, despite Congress passing a short-term continuing resolution.

Monthly orders data has trended below prior-year results since the start of the year. President Trump’s focus on tariffs has created uncertainty for both OEMs and truck buyers.

For the past 18 months, Tesla said manufacturing would start by the end of 2025 and ramp up to capacity through 2026. The firm has a history of missing deadlines, including with the Semi.

U.S. Class 8 retail sales fell below the prior year for the third month in a row in September, according to Wards Intelligence data.

ACT Research preliminary data showed orders decreased 44% year over year to 20,800 units. But they increased 57.6% from the 13,200 units reported in August.

As is typical with Daimler Truck’s pre-earnings sales announcements, no color was provided on the statistics. Daimler Truck will report its full third-quarter earnings on Nov. 7.

Details on how the levies would be imposed and collected were scant as of Oct. 2, which kept truck makers understandably tight-lipped about the potential impact.

American Trucking Associations in May voiced opposition to the prospect of the proposed truck tariffs, stressing the levies could cause financial strain for an industry already struggling.

The latest figures show a 5.1% sequential decrease from 18,838 units reported in July, and year-to-date sales are down 7% to 144,756 units from 155,576.

North American Class 8 truck orders remained below the previous year’s results and also lost ground sequentially during June, according to ACT Research.