October 23, 2026 11:34 AM, EDT
The Mack truck manufacturing plant in Lower Macungie, Pa. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call/TCA)
Key Takeaways:
Mack Trucks added about 270 staff at its Lehigh Valley Operations production plant in Pennsylvania in recent months. The production line additions are the latest example of an industrywide trend predicated on rising demand for trucks and the ongoing freiMack’s second-quarter North American orders jumped 95% year over year as U.S. Class 8 retail sales rose 30% in September.Truck makers including Volvo, International, Peterbilt, Freightliner and Mack are adding workers or shifts as production increases across North America.
Mack Trucks added about 270 staff at its Lehigh Valley Operations production plant in Pennsylvania in recent months.
The production line additions are the latest example of an industrywide trend predicated on rising demand for trucks and the ongoing freight market recovery.
The current head count at the Volvo Group division’s biggest assembly plant is now around 2,800 employees, a Mack Trucks spokeswoman told Transport Topics in an email.
In the spring of 2025, as the longest freight market downturn in industry memory bit ever harder into orders and sales, the Macungie, Pa., plant laid off about 170 employees.
Mack’s North American order intake in the second quarter of 2026 totaled 7,937 trucks, a 95% increase compared with 4,080 in the same period 12 months earlier.
U.S. Class 8 retail sales jumped 30% year over year in September and 3.9% in August, according to Omdia Automotive data. June’s total increased 0.3%, the first year-over-year increase since June 2025’s data was released. Sales or registration data lags order numbers.
Now, alongside Volvo Group sister company Volvo Trucks North America and their peers, Mack is increasing production line staff.
VTNA is hiring up to 500 more workers for its New River Valley plant in Dublin, Va., company President Peter Voorhoeve told Transport Topics recently.
Capacity at the Virginia plant — which underwent an expansion that was completed in the summer of 2024 — has been raised, and new hires are being onboarded, Voorhoeve told TT on the sidelines of American Trucking Associations’ 2026 Management Conference & Exhibition.
Also at MCE, International Motors CEO Mathias Carlbaum told TT the truck maker will introduce a second shift at its San Antonio truck assembly plant in 2027 to meet growing demand after already increasing output in 2026.
Earlier in October, Paccar division Peterbilt confirmed to TT that its Denton manufacturing plant in Texas has added over 1,000 employees so far in 2026.
Freightliner, meanwhile, is adding workers at its Saltillo, Mexico, manufacturing plant as production ramps up across North America, parent company Daimler Truck CEO Karin Radstrom told reporters Sept. 15.
DTNA also is increasing employment at its Mount Holly, N.C., manufacturing plant, CEO John O’Leary told TT in July. The facility, which produces Freightliner trucks, will bring back 400 production line workers laid off in July 2025 and plans to hire 200 more employees by the end of 2026 as it adds a second shift.
The picture for truck makers was much different 12 to 18 months earlier.
Volvo Group’s North American truck operations were the first to announce layoffs, as the Swedish parent company’s top executive revealed in April 2025 plans to release about 1,000 employees over the next couple of months.
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Shortly afterward, International said it was axing the second shift at its Escobedo plant in Mexico, with the loss of 900 jobs.
A further 300 employees at Lisle, Ill.-based International were made redundant in the first quarter of 2026, although no production plant staff departed.
In July 2025, DTNA laid out plans to reduce its head count by around 2,000 employees at five sites. Those facilities included the Mount Holly and Saltillo production plants.