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DTNA to boost Mount Holly plant staffing after 2025 layoffs
North Carolina facility to recall 400 workers, add 200 by end of 2026
Key Takeaways:
- Daimler Truck North America plans to restore 400 jobs and hire 200 more at its Mount Holly, N.C., Freightliner plant by the end of 2026.
- The move signals a freight market rebound, with Class 8 orders up 231% year over year in June and sustained monthly increases in truck production.
- DTNA aims to add a second shift at Mount Holly while monitoring demand trends, though it has not yet reinstated workers at its Saltillo, Mexico, plant.
Daimler Truck North America is set to boost the workforce at its Mount Holly manufacturing plant in North Carolina, CEO John O’Leary told Transport Topics, in one of the first public indications of the freight market rebound’s impact on truck demand.
The plant, which focuses on production of Freightliner trucks, will bring back 400 employees laid off in July 2025 as part of 2,000 production plant job cuts across North American DTNA manufacturing facilities.
In addition, DTNA plans to hire an additional 200 workers at the Mount Holly facility by the end of 2026 as part of plans to add a second shift.
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O'Leary visits the Transport Topics office on July 9. (Seth Clevenger/Transport Topics)
Alongside the Cleveland and Gastonia facilities, Mount Holly — which opened in 1979 — forms a nucleus of manufacturing capacity for America’s largest truck maker. The Cleveland Truck Plant is Freightliner’s largest U.S. manufacturing plant.
DTNA’s Thomas Built Buses and Freightliner Custom Chassis units, meanwhile, operate nearby facilities in High Point, N.C., and Gaffney, S.C. O’Leary told TT that a number of the Mount Holly staff laid off were offered positions with Thomas Built Buses.
Employees at Mount Holly and Gastonia, as well as in Detroit; Portland, Ore.; and Saltillo, Mexico, were laid off in July 2025.
Mount Holly produces Freightliner’s medium-duty models. The Gastonia facility carries out stamping, metal fabrication and subassembly of cab and chassis parts. The Detroit Manufacturing Plant in Redford Township, Mich., is the home of DTNA’s Detroit Diesel engine division.
The Portland plant builds Freightliner’s eCascadia and eM2 battery-electric trucks, as well as Western Star’s X-Series lineup. The Saltillo plant focuses on production of the Freightliner Cascadia, North America’s best-selling Class 8 on-highway tractor.
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(Daimler Truck North America)
At the time, DTNA was the third major truck maker to announce a North American production facility head count reduction. Volvo Group axed 1,000 positions, and Traton Group’s International Motors division cut 900 jobs at its plant in Escobedo, Mexico, in the spring of 2025.
But production of Class 8 trucks at Mexican manufacturing facilities is on the rise in 2026, even with additional tariffs being imposed in November, although O’Leary said DTNA has yet to bring back any Saltillo staff laid off.
Freightliner’s Saltillo and Santiago Tianguistenco plants built 9,379 trucks in June, a 9% year-over-year increase compared with 8,554 trucks in the same month in 2025.
The plants built 9,348 trucks in May, a 14% year-over-year increase compared with 8,203 trucks in the same month in 2025, and a 16.8% jump compared with 8,006 trucks in April.
Truck build rates and sales are expected to accelerate further in the second half of 2026, with ACT Research data released July 3 showing June orders rose by more than 100% year on year for a fifth consecutive month.
North American Class 8 orders totaled 31,400 trucks in June, a 231% jump compared with the year-ago period, ACT data show. Orders rose year on year in June for a seventh straight month.
