New Daimler trucks boss ready to tackle NA market challenges

LAS VEGAS — The American trucking industry is still scraping along the bottom, but the new president of Daimler Trucks’ operations on this side of the pond doesn’t consider his new job "unenviable" at all.

Martin Daum, who was introduced to trucking writers yesterday at the American Trucking Associations annual management conference in Las Vegas, said he relishes the challenge of guiding North America’s heavy truck marketshare leader out of this recession.

The German-born Daum replaced Canadian native Chris Patterson as president of DTNA this past spring. He was previously operations manager at the Mercedes-Benz plant in Woerth, Germany and has been with the Daimler Group for over 20 years, including a 5-year stint in Michigan at Daimler’s former Sterling division in the late 1990s.

Daum (who, by the way, is extremely funny, as we learned at a customer appreciation event later that evening) said he’s spent his first 100 days connecting with employees, dealers and customers. In regards to the latter group, the new boss has been focusing on stating the company’s strategies on 2010 models, serviceability, cost per mile and maintenance.

Later, in a private sit-down with editors from todaystrucking.com and Heavy Duty Trucking, Daum was asked if his task is similar to that of Rainer Schmueckle when he took over for Jim Hebe in 2001. 

There are few parallels, he said. "Back then, it was more of a company-induced problem, now it’s industry-wide."

As for the economy, sure conditions make life more difficult, but, says Daum, it’s about that time individuals stop blaming conditions for all their troubles and start making decisions that will allow them to climb out of the hole.

Plenty of aftermarket and distribution
overlap should help keep former
Sterling buyers on side with Daimler says Daum

 "If you freeze to death in the winter because you’re wearing shorts, is it the fault of winter or your fault?" Daum asks rhetorically.

AROUND THE WORLD:

It’s true that Daimler has been able to leverage the North American downturn with growth in emerging markets like China, India, Brazil and Russia; and that has given the company a competitive advantage in this downturn. But Daum was careful not to overstate the benefits.

"It’s only a piece of cake, not the whole cake," he says. "It’s a nice side business, but it’s not going to make up for the U.S. and Canadian markets."

Going forward, he says he plans to focus on building on what Patterson already laid down, such as continuing to promote the Cascadia as the company’s flagship highway tractor and support Detroit Diesel’s and Daimler Mercedes engine platform for 2010.

ENGINE EMISSIONS:

On the engine emissions front, Daum responded with a flat ‘no’ when asked if he’s at all surprised that rival Navistar has toned down its criticism of SCR as a solution for next year’s engine rules and even hinted that it would entertain SCR to meet future mandates, provided that diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) is not part of the system or if a non-liquid aftertreatment becomes commercially viable.

Added Detroit Diesel’s Dave Siler, who was also present for the meeting: "If their sole purpose was to enact fear over the DEF infrastructure, I think they’re going to see very clearly, and perhaps are already seeing it, that the DEF infrastructure is coming in faster than anticipated. So that takes a lot of the wind out of the sails of that argument"– which, he adds, might explain the sudden change in marketing approaches.

PRODUCT GAPS:

Even as Sterling was shuttering its plants and dealers, the former Daimler division seemed to doing pretty well in sales in the first quarter of 2009.

Part of that was because Daimler "incentiveized" keeping the remaining stock on dealer lots (not so much on the selling of the trucks, says Daum), but it’s obvious there’s still some decent demand in the midrange and vocational sectors Sterling sold in.

Asked by todaystrucking.com about filling that void with Freightliner and Western Star brands, Daum said one advantage is that there’s plenty of aftermarket and parts distribution overlap and the engine offerings are similar as well. "Where we miss a couple features, we will eventually have them with Freightliner on the day cab side and western Star in the heavy-duty vocational."

Daum acknowledges, though, that competitors will set their sights on those Sterling loyalists. They’ll have their work cut out:

"I don’t even want to lose one," Daum said.

We believe him.