Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
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INBRIEF $4.1 billion in revenue for the 2012 third quarter represented an 11 per- cent year-over-year decrease for the global engine maker. preliminary data for North America Class 8 truck sales in November showed the highest level of net orders since the start of the year – 23,200 units – on both an actual and seasonally adjusted scale. added a PeopleNet prewire option for its Class 8 T660, T800 and W900, including automatic vehicle location, lane departure notifi cation, onboard event re- cording, remote vehicle shutdown, speed monitoring and vehicle management. consolidated a signifi cant portion of its medium-duty truck inventory at its port facilities in Baltimore, where the trucks could be delivered quickly to its dealers across states aff ected by Hurricane Sandy for relief eff orts. relocated its headquarters and operations to a larger manufacturing and assembly facility in Hayward, Calif. Aftermarket business began distribution of Fras-le' s Work Truck and Fleet Disc Brake Pad Program to its customers. T680 Road Tour concluded after traveling nearly 26,000 miles to 60 Kenworth dealer events in the United States and Canada. celebrated production of its 100,000th TriPac auxiliary power unit at its manufacturing plant in Hastings, Neb. received Frost & Sullivan's 2012 Technology Leadership Award in the category of commercial vehicle lighting. Light- and medium-duty focus: SHOPPING PREOWNED counterparts, but they are hardly the lightweights of America's transporta- tion network. They are responsible for delivering everything from supplies to finished products. Specialty equipment fitted with everything from dump bod- ies to plows and PTOs become tools in their own right. Most of them will support more than one business during their lifetime. While buyers of new equipment have the most infl uence over a truck's ultimate specifi cations, buyers of used trucks have demands of their own. Rick Rosado, general sales manager of Longwood Truck Center in Longwood, Fla., is blunt when he describes the demand at the top of the list: the sticker price. "I'm selling a truck today that doesn't have air conditioning, " Rosado says, referring to the way that cost-conscious customers are willing to sacrifi ce creature comforts to keep 26 COMMERCIAL CARRIER JOURNAL | DECEMBER 2012 PREOWNED BUT PERFECT M Medium-duty buyers consider many options when shopping for the right used truck BY JOHN G. SMITH edium-duty trucks may have lower gross vehicle weight ratings than their Class 8 budgets under control. The lower sticker price is what drives many buyers to used equipment in the fi rst place. Beyond that, most medium- duty buyers search for trucks weighing less than 26,000 pounds so operators will not require a commercial driver's license. But any truck still must be matched to the tasks it will perform. A small household mover deciding between a 24-foot truck and its 16-foot counterpart will need to know if he plans to move fi ve rooms of furniture in a load, or can live with smaller shipments of three to four rooms at a time. Measuring up Some equipment simply will offer more fl exibility than other options. Ryan Linson, medium-duty sales and market- ing manager for Bruckner's Truck Sales in Albuquerque, N.M., tends to prefer "plain Jane" truck specifi cations that can serve the widest range of users. Most of those searching for dry vans