COLUMBUS, OH. — Sixty-five percent of U.S. fleet executives surveyed by CK Commercial Vehicle Research said that they have plans to place orders for class 8 trucks in the next three months.

The sixty-five percent that said they had plans to buy new iron is an increase from last quarter’s 53 percent, but the estimated size of those planned orders is down from Q2. Year-over-year, however, estimated size is up — 6.1 percent for Q3 13 against Q3 12’s 1.4 percent.

Trailer-wise, expected order activity is down from last quarter as well as year-over-year.

There are a few other interesting highlights from the survey:

Average age for Class 8 vehicles for group responding is 5.2 years – trailers at 8.9 years.

Overall environment at the fleets surveyed is good.

Still few units are designated for added capacity although more individual fleets are adding some capacity

More than half of units operated by the group responding are reported to have an average length of haul of less than 500 miles.

Few fleets expect equipment purchases to change because of new Hours of Service rules.

The Q3 2013 Fleet Sentiment surveyed forty-eight executives from fleets that operate in excess of 31,000 Class 8 trucks and 86,000 trailers.

The full survey is available for purchase here.