DIGGING IN

Dispatches
Daimler’s Daum:
Sales recovery begins in 2017
It’s a tough market for truck sales these
days, but Daimler Trucks North America
president and Chief Executive Officer
Martin Daum still sees a “light at the end
of the tunnel” – and is setting firm goals
for the year to come.
Where Canadian Class 8 sales were up
6% in 2014 and 3% in 2015, they are down
24% this year. Daum expects 360,000
Class 6-8 trucks to be sold in the NAFTA
region this year, down dramatically from
424,000 units last year, and even the
384,000 in 2014.
It’s a drop that admittedly took
Daimler by surprise. “We were much
more optimistic about 2016 twelve
months ago than we are today,” he said
during a wide-ranging briefing with
industry media. Even the optimism for
the year ahead is tempered. Daum predicts
that demand should begin to climb
midway through 2017, but still fail to
overcome a slow start at the top of the
year. Instead, he expects sales to recover
in 2018, in part because there will be a
surge in four- and five-year-old trucks due
for replacements.
But the focus is on more than sales
volumes alone. There’s also the race for
market share. In the U.S., Daimler brands
including Freightliner and Western Star
held 42% of the Class 8 truck market. He’s
also “extremely pleased” about the company’s
position in Canada, where Daimler
held 39.9% of Class
“ We need a great
network and we
need to continually
improve.”
6-8 sales as of August,
up 4.3% from the year
before. PACCAR holds
21.6%, Navistar 16.7%,
and Volvo and Mack
collectively hold 16.1%.
“Market share is more
— Martin Daum
a result of the product,”
he said.
It wasn’t the only dig at competing
brands. Referring to the Cascadia as
the “pinnacle” of the industry, he said,
“We don’t have to fear any new unveiling
of any new products.” International
launched its new Class 8 lineup just
days earlier. And saying that unveiling a
prototype is easier than bringing a product
to mass production could be seen as a jab
at Volvo’s recently unveiled SuperTruck.
Referring to the slow introduction of
Daimler engines in medium-duty trucks,
he said, “to anyone who wants to come
into the North American market with
a new engine should know it isn’t that
easy.” Volkswagen invested in Navistar
just weeks earlier, pledging to bring
a drivetrain to North
America by 2019.
The company’s targets
are not limited to sales
volumes, either. Daimler
wants trucks to emerge
from dealer service bays
within 72 hours, largely
with the help of Express
Assessments and the Elite Support
program that has certified 218 dealers,
with another 90 locations in the works.
In 2014, 65% of trucks passed through
Daimler service bays in that timeframe.
Last year, the share rose to 71.4%. The
company is on track to reach 75% by year
end. Then the goal will be stretched to
85% for the end of 2017.
“We need a great network and we need
to continually improve,” he stressed. TT
Navistar’s Clarke:
Rapid, significant
change is new norm
Troy Clarke, the president and CEO
of Navistar, believes the trucking
industry is entering a period of
“revolutionary” change.
“Today, change is going to
come much more rapidly, and the
impact is going to be much more
significant,” he said, speaking to
those who had gathered to see the
launch of International’s new LT
Series of Class 8 trucks. And he sees
that change affecting everything
from the way freight is moved to
the way vehicles are operated.
Emerging technologies which
make autonomous vehicles a
possibility are clearly an example.
“Will the driver someday become
a relic of our industry? Probably
no one knows for sure today, but
we don’t think so,” Clarke said.
Instead, he sees autonomous technologies
emerging in the form of
systems that assist drivers, much
like the way autopilot is used on
an airplane.
Clarke also predicts virtually
every truck will be connected
within the decade, referring to the
260,000 trucks linked through the
OnCommand diagnostics platform
as just the beginning. “Like never
before, this data has the opportunity
to align everybody’s interests
and bring visibility to all areas of
the transportation system, and
seek out ways to make shipping
freight more efficient by eliminating
time and lowering cost,” he
said. “We have half the equation
solved because, at this time, we
know where that truck is, and we
can tell you how it’s performing.”
There is still work to do, though,
such as letting carriers know
where potential customers have
freight, and where that freight
needs to be shipped.
“Improving asset utilization in
some ways is really no different
than what we see taking place
today in the passenger car market.
Companies like Uber and Lyft, they
really have the potential to disrupt
and redefine the automotive value
chain,” Clarke said, referring to the
ride-sharing services that have disrupted
the taxi industry. “Make no
mistake, these companies are
going to try to do the same thing in
our industry. We understand that,
and we’re not just going to sit on
our hands.” TT
20 TODAY’S TRUCKING