Volvo Expounds on Marketing Strategy for Mack Anthem, Pinnacle

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Transport Topics  /  September 25, 2017

ATLANTA — Mack Trucks showed off its new Anthem highway tractor and clarified how it will be marketed relative to its long-standing Pinnacle highway model that remains available.

The Greensboro, N.C.-based OEM said here on Sept. 26 that axle-back Anthem will be a highway-only model that will give Mack an entry into the longhaul market, especially when purchased with a 70-inch, stand-up sleeper cab.

Pinnacle, often used in less-than-truckload and parcel transportation, will now be axle-forward only, a configuration often preferred by carriers hauling lots of weight.

Anthem is designed for aerodynamic efficiency, whereas Pinnacle has a “classic look,” said John Walsh, Mack’s marketing vice president.

Roy Horton, Mack director of product strategy, said that with the advent of Anthem, Pinnacle would be aimed at both highway and vocational applications.

“It could be linehaul, heavy-haul or oilfield services for Pinnacle, and our MP8 engine is the only option,” Horton said, referring to Mack’s 13-liter power plant.

In contrast, Anthem will have three engine choices: the 11-liter MP7, MP8 or a Cummins-Westport 12-liter natural gas model.

Mack is a big manufacturer of vocational trucks for construction and refuse hauling, but Walsh said the company has been “unfairly pigeon-holed as vocational only.”

The Mack presentation was part of the North American Commercial Vehicle Show.

Jonathan Randall, a Mack senior vice president, said, “longhaul trucking is coming back,” and that Mack wants a piece of that market and will use Anthem to pursue it.

“We’re back into markets where we hadn’t been a strong consideration,” Randall said of the company’s longhaul effort.

Mack and Volvo Trucks North America are both part of Volvo Group, which recently raised its North American Class 8 sales forecast to 225,000 trucks this year, industrywide, from 215,000.

Volvo Group management expects 2018 sales to rise over this year’s level, citing generally positive indicators for the U.S. economy.

In addition to fuel-efficiency improvements, Horton said the Anthem’s design included input from drivers so as to add to their comfort. He said the tractor has 27 cubic feet of storage space throughout the cab in several locations.

The tractor was launched in Allentown, Pa., in mid-September.

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Mack Cites Positive Trends And Sales Figures at NACV

Heavy Duty Trucking (HDT)  /  September 26, 2017

ATLANTA — Fresh off the launch of its new Anthem highway tractor, Mack Trucks held an upbeat press conference kicking off day two of the North American Commerical Vehicle Show (NACV) in Atlanta with an overview of the year to date and hints as to the company’s future objectives.

Jonathan Randall, senior vice president, sales for Mack, began by noting that the North American truck market has stabilized in the past couple of months to the point that the company is upgrading its Class 8 sales forecast. Initially, Randall said, Mack was predicting Class 8 sales of around 215,000 units by year’s end. Now, he feels 225,000 is possible, with even higher sales likely.

Overall, Randall said, times are good for Mack with strong construction and vocational marketshare numbers holding steady along with a firm mid-20% marketshare for straight trucks. The company continues to invest heavily in the future, as well, Randall said, with approximately $84 million spent on new products and upgrades, while Mack dealers have invested over $600 million in new and upgraded facilities.

Mack marketing manager John Walsh added that the company has a long, proud, history in the North American long-haul market segment, and is looking to reclaim some of that glory with the new Anthem tractor launched last week at the company’s home in Macungie, Penn.

Roy Horton, director of product strategy for Mack, spoke about the company’s focus on improving fuel efficiency, driver recruitment, and uptime for its customers today. He noted that the last round of aerodynamic upgrades boosted fuel economy by up to 3%. When combined with a Mack MP8 diesel engine and integrated Econodyne powertrain, fuel economy numbers rise 8% compared to previous Mack models. Horton said the Mack mDrive automated manual transmission was a big enabler for that boost in fuel efficiency, with 88% of new, on-highway models spec’d with the units.

David Pardue, vice president of connected vehicles and uptime services for Mack wrapped up the press briefing by announcing that the company is still on track to release over-the-air (OTA) powertrain updates for 2018 Mack trucks equipped with 2017 Greenhouse Gas Phase 2 engines by year’s end.

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Mack Trucks predicts stronger long-haul segment

Fleet Owner  /  September 26, 2017

OEM boosts its 2017 Class 8 sales forecast to 225,000 units, sees more truck buying from smaller and medium fleets.

ATLANTA. Hot on the heels of the unveiling of its new axle back Class 8 tractor, the Anthem, Mack Trucks is predicting a sales uptick in the long-haul market to stretch out for the next two years here at the inaugural North American Commercial Vehicle (NACV) show.

“Orders are coming in and we’re quoting on a lot of business where we were previously not a strong consideration,” noted Jonathan Randall, senior vice president of sales for Mack Trucks. “It’s really the entire [fleet] segment, small to large, that’s returning to buy, though we are now

He explained that the long-haul segment is expected to rebound from this influx of buying activity. Typically, Randall said the long-haul segment makes up 48% to 50% of overall commercial truck sales, but year-to-date that’s dropped to 41%.

“The [truck sales] growth of late has been in construction, regional haul, and some ‘micro-segments’ like refuse,” he noted. “But now we see long-haul returning to its rightful place in terms of sales share over the next couple of years.”

Randall added that Mack’s share of the commercial sales market is “up a percentage” point in the U.S. and now sits at 8.6% for the U.S. and Canada year-to-date. He said Mack did experience some “slippage” in Canadian market share at the beginning of this year but expects that to return to 2016 levels by the end of 2017. “We’ve got a strong backlog of orders,” Randall pointed out.

In order to handle a long-expected higher volume of truck orders, Mack has been investing in its production capacity over the last five years, according to John Walsh, vice president of global marketing.

He said the OEM has invested $40 million since 2012 in mDrive automated manual transmission (AMT) and axle production, along with training investments.

Roy Horton, Mack’s director of product strategy, added that the mDrive is now being spec’d in 88% of Mack’s on-highway truck orders.

Walsh went on to note that the OEM also has invested $84 million in its Lehigh Valley Operations in Pennsylvania since 2014, which includes new processes and tooling for its assembly plant.

“We’re confident we can meet market demand,” Randall added. “Our investments will allow us to do that through one plant.”

A few other items highlighted during Mack’s press conference included:

• Mack’s dealers have invested over $600 million in their facilities since 2010, expanding service bay capacity by 53%, their truck technician workforce by 91%, and overall “rooftop” locations by 7% over that time period.

• Mack’s new Anthem tractor is a replacement for the Pinnacle axle-back highway tractor; the Pinnacle axle-forward model remains as it is popular in the heavy haul, oil field, and other vocational markets, noted Randall.

• Mack continues to analyze truck market demand, especially when it comes to growth in the last-mile logistics sector. “We look at that in terms of demand for daycabs with a single axle,” he said. “We don’t have a Class 6-7 truck but we’re always looking at that.”

• Autonomous truck technology is something Mack will approach if there is “market value” to it, Randall pointed out: “If it has viability, we’ll certainly bring it to market.”

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