North America Class 8 commercial vehicle preliminary net orders for October improved both month over month and year over year, ACT Research Co. reported.

The final numbers, which will be released mid-November, will approach 27,700 units for Class 8 trucks and 13,300 for class 5-7 vehicles.

September final orders rose 55 percent over a year earlier and 12 percent ahead of August.  September’s total was 23,600 net Class 8 units, the company said.

“At this level of order activity, there is probably some incremental fleet growth taking place,” said Steve Tam, ACT vice president-commercial vehicle sector. “The underlying fundamentals in the heavy truck market are all healthy. Fleet equipment is old, trucker profitability is good, used truck values are strong and financing is generally available.”