Navistar recommits to medium-duty market
Company’s ‘laser-like’ focus includes sales ‘Boot Camp’
As anyone in the truck industry knows, the race to meet the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 2010 diesel engine emissions regulations has been an all-consuming and contentious one for truck and engine manufacturers. And according to Jim Hebe, senior vice president of North American sales operations, the emissions battle has had unwanted consequences for Navistar, causing the company to take its eye off a market segment Hebe says it created and has owned since 1906: Medium-duty vocational trucks. And that’s a trend the company is determined to reverse.
But Navistar won’t simply be reaffirming its commitment to the medium-duty market. Hebe is calling for an all-out assault on Class 4, 5 and 6 truck markets. The goal, Hebe announced, is for Navistar – which currently holds a 36 percent share of the medium-duty market, according to internal measurements – to reach 50 percent within the next couple of years. In order to reach this goal, Navistar has extended the military theme down to a Medium-Duty “Boot Camp” the company is hosting in seven key cities across the country this fall.
The Boot Camp tour will educate almost 1,000 key Navistar dealer sales representatives on the finer points of working with buyers who, in Hebe’s words, “are not necessarily truck people.” Boot Camp participants were issued a thick three-ring binder complemented by in-depth presentations with a “laser-like” focus on a wide array of topics, including new insights into Navistar and competitive products as well as service and support after the sale. “We’re talking about buyers who don’t factor truck purchases into their yearly budgets,” Hebe notes. “They drive trucks until they die. And when they decide they absolutely have to purchase a new one, they’re going to make that decision in 48 hours, and they’re going to give a dealership three weeks – at most – to deliver that truck to them.”
To reach its goal, Navistar comes to market with a new 300 hp MaxxForce 7 V8 diesel engine with 660 lb.-ft. of torque, the new TerraStar Class 4 and 5 vocational trucks that will begin appearing on Navistar dealer lots this fall, and the DuraStar. In addition, a new natural-gas engine based on Navistar’s DT-7 V8 diesel will be launched next year in WorkStar vocational trucks.
In other company news, Navistar announced its move to Lisle, Ill., and credited Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn and Attorney General Lisa Madigan with clearing a path for the company to retain or create nearly 3,000 permanent jobs over the next several years along with more than 400 construction jobs.
As part of a $205 million effort, the company will invest $110 million in the 1.2 million-square-foot Lisle headquarters, which will include executive management, business operations and product development. Core features of the technology center once envisioned for the Lisle campus will move, and another roughly $15 million will be invested in a new parts facility in the Northern Illinois area. – Jack Roberts
IN BRIEF
* Commercial Vehicle Group entered into an agreement with Daimler Trucks North America through 2014 to provide products for DTNA’s manufacturing facilities in Saltillo and Santiago, Mexico, and three facilities in the United States. CVG will open a new facility near Saltillo.
* SelecTrucks extended its Down Payment Match promotion through Dec. 31. The used truck retailer will match up to $2,500 of a small fleet’s or owner-operator’s down payment.
