Dealer Execs Optimistic About Prospects for Truck Sales After OEM Meetings
This story appears in the May 3 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.
KISSIMMEE, Fla. — Dealer executives bubbled with optimism as they exited their respective truck-brand meetings here at the American Truck Dealers conference.
“By far, this is the most optimistic make meeting I’ve ever attended,” said New England Mack dealer Jack McDevitt, the brand’s line representative on the ATD board. McDevitt said he was pleased with Mack’s quality improvements, the products he has available to sell and the manufacturer’s recent executive changes.
“We’re feeling good about where the industry is now. The mood was upbeat, but there’s a challenge for all of us after this long, deep downturn,” said Martin Osborne, general manager of dealer operations for Daimler Trucks North America.
Transport Topics met with dealers and original equipment manufacturer executives after each of the big six heavy-duty brand meetings
April 23-26. Among their comments:
• International line representative Duane Kyrish said his dealers were enthusiastic in their support of Daniel Ustian, Navistar International chairman and CEO, and his management team.
Kyrish said he was initially worried when Navistar announced its decision to go with exhaust gas recirculation engines exclusively for 2010 and had thought the company was making a mistake by abandoning Cummins Inc. and its selective catalytic reduction line.
“A lot of us [dealers] were disappointed two years ago about the engine choice. We thought the company needed a choice of two engines, but these decisions have borne fruit and the results have changed our minds,” Kyrish said. He added that the ProStar tractor has been a hit and his customers have given good reviews after tests of the MaxxForce 2010 engines, Navistar’s first proprietary heavy-duty power plants.
• Details of the switch to new engines mean that Classes 6 and 7 medium-duty Freightliner orders are surging now after a late fall and winter lull, and Class 8 heavy-duty orders should soon begin rising, said Freightliner’s Brian Cota, vice president of sales.
Osborne said that he told dealers Freightliner has prepared itself to support them with aftermarket parts as the trucking economy improves.
• Kenworth Trucks and Peterbilt Motors, the two Paccar Inc. OEMs, emphasized their new Class 8 sleepers and the engine they hope customers will select, the Paccar MX.
Each Paccar company is doing a road trip to many of its dealerships, featuring a T700 truck for Kenworth locations and a Model 587 for Peterbilt. Each tractor will be powered by an MX and will pull a demonstration trailer that explains the workings of Paccar’s first in-house North American Class 8 engine.
ATD Chairman and Kenworth dealer Kyle Treadway said he will host the road trip at five of his Western locations, and that he hopes to get “500 customers to touch the truck.”
Iowa Peterbilt dealer George Grask said he would invite customers for lunch and demonstrate the engine’s quiet running and torque at low horsepower.
Kenworth General Manager Bill Kozek said second-half new truck sales this year should show signs of real improvement and noted that aftermarket parts sales already are doing better.
• Ron Huibers, the new senior vice president of sales and marketing for Volvo Trucks North America, avoided airport trouble by driving to the meeting in several trucks.
“He left the Volvo plant in New River Valley, Va., and drove in four customers’ trucks to Orlando,” said Volvo line rep Ron Remp of Wheeling, W.Va. Remp said much of the meeting consisted of Huibers and the dealers getting to know each other.
Huibers said parts and service sales are increasing, a sign of fleets repairing idled trucks.
“It’s a very good signal, and I think the fundamentals are showing a return toward profitability. We’ve all seen good signals on used truck sales and some dealers have even seen pockets of scarcity,” Huibers said.
• Cummins Inc. will be pleased to “behave like the engine division” of any truck maker that wants to buy ISX diesel engines, said Jeff Jones, vice president of sales and marketing. Jones has for several years represented the Columbus, Ind., engine maker at ATD meetings.
While Cummins talks to truck makers on an almost daily basis, Jones said about half of his marketing efforts are aimed at fleet managers. Cummins needs to make sure that truck buyers keep spec’ing their vehicles with Cummins engines rather than in-house power plants.
“To be viable we have to satisfy the end customer as well as make good business sense for the OEMs . . . It’s very competitive on both sides,” Jones said.
