Freightliner restructuring plan to be revealed Oct. 20

STUTTGART, Germany (Sept. 5, 2001) — Freightliner LLC will unveil a plan Oct. 20 to restructure its operations, said the chief of the commercial vehicles unit at Freightliner’s parent company, DaimlerChrysler AG.

Eckhard Cordes, the management board member responsible for commercial vehicles operations, would not be specific about what the plan would entail or how it would affect Freightliner’s product lines and operating divisions, but told journalists in Germany that the Portland, Ore.-based truckmaker likely would not have to cut more jobs.

With sales at half of 1999 levels, Freightliner has already laid off almost 50% of blue-collar positions and almost 40% of white-collar jobs. Company president and CEO Jim Hebe resigned in May; he was replaced by Rainer Schmueckle, senior vice-president of controlling at DaimlerChrysler.

Cordes added that he doesn’t foresee a recovery in the U.S. or the NAFTA truck markets in 2001 or 2002.

Freightliner builds commercial trucks in North America under the Freightliner, Sterling, Western Star brands. It also produces American LaFrance fire trucks, Thomas Built Buses school buses, and Orion transit buses, and operates a truck dealer/service network in North America, including 36 pre-owned truck sales centres (SelecTrucks). It is an owner in TravelCenters of America, the largest network of full-service truck stops in the United States, and develops software for managing vehicle maintenance.