There are some very scary numbers going around.
German order intake looks to be down by over 55 per cent this year. We know that Spain has stopped dead, as has Ireland. The UK truck market is also slowing at a pace.
There is an obvious time lag as ordered trucks are delivered, but it now looks like 2009 could be heading for the title of worst year on record for the EU truck business. We're currently attempting to write a report that deals with EU trucks over the next five years, and are now revising our numbers downwards for the third time.
The problem is that there is nothing against which we can compare the current situation; the truck market just seems to have stopped dead. When it will start again, and what it will look like remains to be seen.