Mack’s Roy Seeks 10% Share of Heavy-Duty Truck Market

This story appears in the March 3 print edition of Transport Topics.

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Mack Trucks’ new president of North American sales and marketing said the company has set its sights on capturing 10% of the Class 8 market this year by growing its over-the-road business.

“We feel very comfortable that this year we’re going to bust above 10%,” Stephen Roy told reporters here Feb. 21 at the Mack Customer Center.

Roy, who stepped into his role Jan. 1, said Mack will turn its focus to the longhaul market while retaining its traditional strength in vocational and regional haul.

Roy succeeded Kevin Flaherty, who retired after a 40-year career at Mack.

According to WardsAuto.com, Mack’s U.S. Class 8 market share was 8.8% in 2013 compared with 8.9% in 2012. The company’s annual sales slipped 6% to 16,289 units. Industrywide, Class 8 sales declined 5.1%.

Roy said Mack’s share of the North American market was 9.5% in the third quarter and 9.8% in the fourth quarter.

Roy pointed to the company’s expanded service network as a part of the groundwork for its growth plans.

Mack’s network of independent dealers has invested $300 million in new and expanded service facilities since 2010, resulting in a 40% increase in bay capacity and 50% more technicians across 428 locations, Roy said.

The company also launched its GuardDog Connect remote diagnostics service last year to help customers proactively respond to fault codes. Mack is building a new “uptime command center” in Greensboro, N.C., where the company plans to centralize its technical support staff. Construction is on track for completion in the fall, Roy said.

Given those support improvements, along with product features such as the mDrive automated manual transmission, Mack is positioned to increase its market share in the highway segment, said John Walsh, vice president of marketing.

“It’s clear to us that if we’re going to grow share, we’ve got to have a larger presence in the longhaul piece of the market,” he said.

Walsh also said the company will “relaunch” the 114-year-old Mack brand in early March at ConExpo in Las Vegas, but he did not provide additional details.

Roy also said the truck maker will continue to keep its “overlap” with sister company Volvo Trucks to a minimum as the companies seek to jointly grow share.

“If you limit each brand to a certain segment, you’re not necessarily sure the other brand’s going to capture it,” Roy said. “I think you’ll see Volvo look at what they can do on the vocational side, and you’re going to see what we can do on the highway side.

“Many of our customers have a range of products. You can have a day cab and also need a sleeper unit. We need to be there to support our customers in all of their applications.”

Roy said Mack is seeing about 40% adoption of its mDrive transmission for its day cab and highway segments, and he predicted that the industry’s trend toward AMTs will continue.

Looking to alternative fuels, Roy said Mack remains committed to offering customers several options.

If the demand is there, Roy said it would be “easy” for Mack to adapt a version of the 13-liter high-pressure, direct-injection, natural-gas engine being developed by Volvo.

Mack currently offers trucks with the new spark-ignited Cummins Westport ISX12 G engine.

Mack, which has been predominantly an East Coast business, also is “very well-aligned” to take advantage of the expected shift in ocean shipping traffic resulting from the Panama Canal expansion, Roy said.

Walsh added that the industry’s trend toward hub-and-spoke operations to provide more home time for drivers also is favorable for Mack, given its strength in regional haul.

Sweden-based Volvo Group, which owns Mack and Volvo Trucks, said it plans to cut 4,400 “white-collar” employees and consultants worldwide, including 2,000 previously announced job cuts, as part of a restructuring plan.

But Roy said he sees that initiative having “no effect” on Mack this year.

“We’re actually increasing our headcount at Mack because of our growth focus,” he said.