PHILADELPHIA — Jeff Sass is four months into a mission to return Navistar Inc. to profitability and the good graces of truck operators.
The senior vice president of North American truck sales and marketing, Sass was recruited to Navistar after a 20-year career with Paccar Inc. Bill Kozek, Navistar’s president of truck and parts and another Paccar alumnus, persuaded Sass to make the jump.
In an Oct. 19 interview here, Sass said he has been traveling the United States and Canada, talking to customers, keeping them happy and spreading the word that the Lisle, Illinois, original equipment manager has revamped its operations significantly.
“We made some bad engines,” he said of previous management’s decisions related to the 2010 generation of engine technology. “There is a lot of negativity still in the market.”
Having switched to selective catalytic reduction from the original choice of exhaust gas recirculation only, Navistar is making “the best trucks we’ve ever built,” Sass said.
During the company’s most recent quarterly earnings call, CEO Troy Clarke said the company has gained market share in medium-duty sales, severe duty and school buses. The gap in the portfolio has been Class 8 highway tractors, and that’s what brought Sass to the Management Conference & Exhibition of American Trucking Associations.
“We won’t be gaining market share [in Class 8] this year, but we will in 2016, I think,” Sass said.
He cited Navistar’s deal with Quality Cos., a leasing subsidiary of Celadon Group, as a harbinger of better times. Quality is buying 9,000 ProStar tractors from Navistar at a rate of 300 per month for 30 months.
The company also is working on clearing its used-truck market with its Diamond Renewed program, where it sells overhauled trucks with a fresh warranty.
“It’s really proving its mettle,” Sass said.
The company’s maintenance telematics program, OnCommand Connect, now has 150,000 trucks under coverage and only half of them are Internationals. Fleets with multiple brands can use just one Web portal to manage maintenance.
Sass does have a financial component to his decisions. He said he would not have left Paccar if he didn’t think Navistar could be rejuvenated.
“You’re 100% correct on that assumption,” he said.
Sass said profitability is crucial not just for shareholders, but truck buyers, too. Generating profits is the key to investments that create better trucks, he said.
“The darkest days are behind us,” he said. “We’ve made the turn toward a prosperous future.”
