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New orders for commercial trailers dipped 0.8% in October from the year-ago level after a rise in cancellations, but manufacturers and retail sellers reported strong late October and early November activity.

Frozen Food Express Industries said it will sell more than 400 dry vans and almost 300 tractors to truckload carrier Celadon Trucking Services.

A surge in tank truck business, spurred by oil and shale gas drilling, is fueling an “incredibly hot” market for tank trailers to haul crude oil, sand and related products, industry officials said.

Trailer manufacturers said they received 12,524 net orders in August, a 10% increase from a year ago, but below July’s level, ACT Research Co. reported last week.

Truck fleets ordered 13,200 new commercial trailers during July, a 20% increase over July 2010, but the fourth straight month of declining figures, ACT Research Co. reported.

The more than year-long surge in orders for new trailers showed signs of leveling off in June, increasing just 6% from 2010 levels, compared with an overall 65% gain over the first half of 2011, ACT Research Co. said.

Orders for new trailers in May increased 30% from a year ago but slipped from an April peak, although manufacturers said the market remained strong, with total orders through May 77% ahead of 2010 and with a growing backlog of deliveries.

New building techniques and innovative materials are helping to make trailers, especially dry vans and reefers, lighter, more fuel efficient and better at fighting corrosion, manufacturers said.

Federal legislation that would ban the use of double-decker trailers to transport horses has drawn the ire of trucking and other interest groups because they say there has not been adequate debate.

Legislation that would ban the transportation of horses in double-decker trailers would cost the nearly 80 contractors who transport livestock to rodeos all over the U.S. more than $4 million in extra operating and equipment costs, according to estimates by the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association.