Truck Dealers Upbeat About Economy, But Fret Over Fuel Costs, Federal Rules

This story appears in the April 25 print edition of Transport Topics.

The American Truck Dealers held its annual convention in Phoenix this month, with members cheerful over the economic rebound but increasingly leery of pending federal regulations.

“Thankfully that tide appears to have turned. The recovery has begun,” ATD chairman Kyle Treadway said in his keynote address on April 16.

“It nevertheless appears . . . that our recovery is by no means a sure thing and could be easily derailed by volatile fuel prices, an unpredictable regulatory environment, international political upheaval [or] global disasters,” Treadway added.

Dealers who attended the 48th ATD convention April 15-18 said the mood was a welcome change from other recent meetings.

“In general, the outlook was very upbeat, very encouraging . . . and that feeling was refreshing after the last couple of years,” Ronald Remp, principal of Wheeling (W.Va.) Truck Center, a Volvo heavy-duty truck dealer, told Transport Topics after the convention.

“The energy and sense of optimism was across the board at this convention,” Jack McDevitt, president of McDevitt Trucks Inc., Manchester, N.H., told TT.

McDevitt is ATD board chairman for Mack Trucks Inc. and Remp is chairman for Volvo Trucks North America.

Treadway said many of the meetings during the conference focused on the growing number of federal laws and regulations.

“Federal emission rules put in for 2002, ’07 and ’10 disrupted our business cycle and the business recovery this time,” Treadway told TT. “We’re taking a page from our car dealer partners and their successes . . . to insert the truck dealer voice into the regulatory and legal processes to ensure that they don’t make any changes without realizing the complicity involved.”

ATD is part of the National Automobile Dealers Association.

Treadway noted the expected first heavy-duty truck fuel economy standards are a top priority.

“At this convention, ATD was strongly encouraging dealers to spend time with their congressional members and senators,” Jim Hartman, principal of Truck Enterprises Inc., Harrisonburg, Va., told TT. “We have to advise them of things that we need, and what we could do help us.”

Treadway told the convention he recently set up a visit to his dealership by the two Utah senators, Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee, both Republicans.

“While I’ve been calling on Capitol Hill for several years now, this was the first time my representatives came to see and learn about our world,” Treadway said.

Wheeling Truck’s Remp said the federal excise tax on the sale of commercial vehicles was another critical issue.

“ATD is working on legislation issues, especially to remove the 12% federal excise tax on new and used heavy trucks,” Remp said. “So many congressmen don’t realize that every new vehicle has that 12% tax.”

Meanwhile, in another positive sign of the economic recovery, McDevitt and Treadway said some truck manufacturers are raising their estimates of U.S. heavy-duty vehicle production for 2011.

“Some manufacturers and industry experts raised their predictions of U.S. heavy-duty output this year to 220,000 trucks, up from 165,000 to 180,000 earlier this year,” McDevitt said.

“The truck manufacturers that I heard all raised their earlier estimates of truck production, based on orders they’ve received through the first half of this year,” Treadway said. “The new numbers being pushed around were up to 220,000 to 230,000, though they weren’t consensus numbers.”