Navistar executives looking ahead

[kscarbel2]

Today’s Trucking  /  October 10, 2017

NEW CARLISLE, IN – Backed by a new family of products and a robust economy, Navistar executives are clearly feeling positive about the future.

“We have [introduced] a lot of new products in the last two years, and we got a lot of new products coming in the next two,” said Denny Mooney, senior vice president – product development, during a briefing to industry media.

Those new products include the LT linehaul tractor, its RH regional hauling counterpart introduced at the Expocam trade show in Montreal, the heavy vocational HX tractor launched last year to replace the PayStar, and the new HV that replaces the WorkStar. The HV was unveiled at the recent North American Commercial Vehicle Show in Atlanta, Georgia.

The HX itself represents a market segment that Navistar saw drop in half after it stopped producing 15-liter engines. “Our [13-liter model], because it was an EGR engine, we couldn’t cool it at some of the power and torque ratings we needed," he said.

A little over five years later, though, Navistar says it’s back in the business. “We’re picking up share,” Mooney said, noting that three HX models were entirely new entries in the marketplace. “In the vocational segment, if you don’t have the features, if you don’t have the power and torque, they’re not buying the truck,” he said.

Heavy vocational trucks represent a relatively small market compared to the sales volumes of linehaul tractors, but the segment is growing on news of booming construction and even improving sales in the oil and gas sector.

 “It’s not a share play. It’s more of a profit play. These are high-margin trucks. The volumes are way higher in on-highway, but the margins are much thinner,” he said.

With just three weeks left in the company’s current fiscal year, Navistar is bullish on the economy in general, said Jeff Sass, Navistar’s senior vice president – North American truck sales and marketing. The company’s North American Class 8 market share inched up about 0.5%, with the share of medium-duty trucks up 3% in 2017.  “I see the economy being very strong. I see the freight rates going up. I see the number of loads going up,” he said.

Still, there are challenges to come – specifically in the form of Electronic Logging Devices, which as of December will be mandated for carriers operating in the U.S. Overall productivity is expected to drop 8-12% at first, and then level out at a drop of 3-5% once the rollout is complete, Sass said. “Those are the fleets that were running clean in the first place.”

It could influence the market for used trucks, too. Half of U.S. freight is hauled by a truck operated by its second or third owner, Sass said, predicting further consolidation in the truck market to come. “Most of those second or third owners have not implemented ELDs yet.”

In the battle for market share, Navistar executives say driver-centric features will play a significant role overall.

“We know there’s a driver shortage in the industry, but we have really, really tried to make these products [the type of] products drivers want to drive,” Mooney added. “If the drivers like our trucks, the fleets are going to buy our trucks.”

Driver-centric features include disc brakes that are less “grabby” than drum designs, he said. “We made disc brakes standard on the LT in June of this year, but we also saw the take rates come up.”

Other technologies have been making gains of their own. Take rates for collision mitigation systems are up 50%, while the sales of replacement bumpers and fenders has reportedly dropped.

Predictive cruise controls that adjust speeds and gears based on readings of topography have also seen take rates rise to 15%. The latter system, launched just over a year ago, is delivering “real world” fuel economy gains, Mooney said.

The biggest technological shift, though, has come in the form of Automated Manual Transmissions (AMTs), which have seen take rates rise above 70% compared to about 40% of trucks sold just two years ago. “It was one of those technologies we knew made it easier for drivers to drive trucks,” Mooney said.

The company’s proving grounds* are playing a key role in enabling new technologies, he added, referring to the facilities purchased 2.5 years ago, close to the manufacturer’s Chicago-based engineering teams. Half the trucks that run the three-mile, three-lane oval, are even made by other manufacturers. That is keeping a team of 75 employees running seven days a week, three shifts a day.

*  https://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/40066-navistar-buys-668-acre-indiana-proving-grounds-from-bosch/?tab=comments#comment-290400

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[kscarbel2]

International positioned to capitalize on strengthening truck market

James Menzies, Truck News  /  October 10, 2017

NEW CARLISLE, Ind. – A refreshed International Trucks product line is being rolled out as demand for new trucks strengthens, which should make 2018 a good year for Navistar.

“I’m very bullish on 2018,” Jeff Sass, senior vice-president of sales and marketing with Navistar told journalists, who were visiting for an International Trucks ride-and-drive. He noted freight rates are up, the economy is strong, and load volumes are increasing, all of which should carry into 2018. “I think it’s going to be a big year for trucking and for truck manufacturers,” Sass said.

However, he remains concerned about how the impending electronic logging device (ELD) mandate will affect the used truck market. Sass said fleets could initially see an 8-12% productivity loss as they deploy ELDs, and he wonders how the fleets that typically run used trucks will adapt.

“Right now, we’ve got half the freight in America being hauled by a second or third owner,” Sass said. “Most of those second and third owners have not implemented ELDs. Will they be able to maintain their standing?”

A stronger truck market in 2018 will be welcomed by Navistar, which is refreshing its entire product line. Sass said the company is already seeing its market share improve this year, about 3% in the medium-duty segment and 0.5% in Class 8. Sass says it’s largely because of Navistar’s focus on uptime, and its driver-centric approach to truck design.

“For major fleets, their number one cost of total operation was driver retention,” Sass said. “Fleets have told me they have more loads than drivers and they’ll buy every truck I can sell them with a driver in it.”

To this end, International Trucks product updates have been driver-focused. Sass pointed to the switches, the placement of the air horn lanyard, the instrument clusters, mirror placement, etc., as items that were enhanced with driver input.

Denny Mooney, senior vice-president of product development, said International will continue to roll out new products over the next two years. It has already replaced its ProStar with the LT, the ProStar 113 with the RH for regional haul, the PayStar with the HX, and most recently, the WorkStar with the new HV. It also updated its classic-styled LoneStar, and brought to market a 12.4-liter A26 engine.

“We really tried to make these products, products drivers want to drive,” said Mooney. “When you go talk to our big fleet customers, they tell us ‘If our drivers don’t want to drive your trucks, we’re not going to buy your trucks’.”

The company conducted driver clinics and even brought clay models of its interiors to fleets, to collect driver feedback when refreshing its product line.

It is also pushing safety technologies more aggressively. The company has doubled its air disc brake penetration rate in the last two years, and made them standard on the LT series this year. It also made collision mitigation standard on the LT and has seen the take rate climb more than 50%. And automated transmissions are now being spec’d in more than 70% of International trucks.

Visiting journalists were given the opportunity to drive the full line of International trucks, at the company’s sprawling New Carlisle, Ind., proving grounds. We’ll have a full report soon.

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[kscarbel2]

Navistar betting on driver preference

Jeff Crissey, Commercial Carrier Journal (CCJ)  /  October 10, 2017

Battle lines for OEM market share are redrawn on a routine basis. In 2009, when diesel was $4 per gallon, fuel efficiency was king. After an initial round of greenhouse gas emissions regulations and the government-funded SuperTruck program, the playing soon leveled. After diesel’s precipitous price drop, attention shifted to dealer service networks, productivity and remote diagnostics. Uptime became king.

With the driver shortage reaching critical mass, OEMs now are turning their attention from what’s under the hood to what’s behind the wheel.

Navistar is in the process of rebranding its lineup of heavy- and medium-duty trucks, and the company’s new “DriverFirst” product design philosophy has permeated every new product introduced in the last year, including the International LT and RH (replacing the ProStar and TranStar) Class 8 tractors, the severe-duty HX and HV vocational trucks (formerly the PayStar and WorkStar).

“A fleet’s number-one cost of total operation is driver retention,” said Jeff Sass, Navistar’s senior vice president of sales and marketing. Navistar’s redesigned interiors involved input from hundreds of drivers and fleet customers. “[DriverFirst] is how we make trucks attractive to fleets for being driver-centric, safer and easier to drive.”

Common design improvements to International trucks include new switch placements, a steering column-mounted shifter, instrument cluster with customizable digital display, repositioned mirrors to reduce head movement and reduce neck fatigue and relocated tractor air supply and parking brake control valves.

Denny Mooney, Navistar’s group vice president for product development, says in conversations with fleet customers that fuel economy and other performance attributes are important, “but at the end of the day we found that if the drivers like our trucks, fleets will buy them.”

Technology and safety improvements also are playing a bigger role in driver and fleet preference, paying back in the used truck market for fleet owners and make trucks easier to drive for drivers, Mooney said. Take rates on disc brakes have doubled in the past year, and take rates for automated manual transmissions is now over 70 percent. Mooney says predictive cruise control is beginning to gain acceptance as fleets realize the value they bring to improve fuel economy, while take rates for collision mitigation systems are now above 50 percent.

Citing increases in freight rates and load activity, Sass is bullish on truck sales for the remainder of 2017 and into 2018. “[2018] should be a big year for trucking and truck manufacturers,” he said, adding Navistar will close out its fiscal-year 2017 at the end of October with a 3 percent year-over-year growth in medium-duty market share and 0.5 percent growth for the Class 8 market. “That is a testament to our customer experience and dealer network,” he said.

Sass cautioned the electronic logging device mandate could negatively impact productivity – as much as an initial 8 to 12 percent for fleets that haven’t converted to ELDs begin the learning curve and 3 to 5 percent thereafter – and cause further turmoil in the used truck market.

“Half the freight in America is hauled by a truck on its second or third owner,” said Sass. “Most of them haven’t implemented ELDs yet. Will they be able to maintain their standing moving forward?”

First look: International HV vocational truck

Navistar’s new International HV severe-duty vocational truck, launched at the North American Commercial Vehicle Show last month, is the latest truck introduction in the company’s efforts to rebrand its entire vehicle lineup. It was made available for limited on-course test drives to members of the media at a press event in New Carlisle, Ind. this week.

From the outside, the HV looks identical to its WorkStar predecessor. But under the hood and inside the cab, the HV offers a few notable updates. In addition to Cummins B6.7 and L9 engine options, the HV is available with Navistar’s new International A26 12.4-liter engine, replacing the N9, N10 and N13 engine options on the WorkStar.

The HV borrows its cab interior from the International LT long-haul and RH regional-haul tractors, bringing over-the-road ergonomics and driver comfort features to vocational applications and helping Navistar reclaim market share in that segment it forfeited over the last six years in the wake of MaxxForce engine woes.

A new premium gauge cluster display allows drivers to track trip data, fuel economy as well as customizable vehicle, engine, transmission and axle information. Up to 30 customizable and programmable switches can be added to the wing panel depending on the truck body.

A new steering column-mounted shifter creates more driver legroom, and relocated pedestal mirrors provide better forward visibility with less neck movement to survey surroundings. The parking brake control valve has been moved to the far right of the wing panel, making room for climate control and other buttons within closer reach of the driver’s seat.

The HV sits between the DuraStar and the HX in International’s vocational truck lineup. The main differentiators from the DuraStar are the HV’s available power takeoff, A26 engine option and a GVWR of 73,000 pounds compared to the Daystar’s 54,600 pounds. The HX offers an additional 15-liter Cummins X15 engine and an aluminum cab over the steel cab HV.

The International HV is available with regular, extended and crew cab configurations in four models with 107-inch or 113-inch BBC in both set-back and set-forward axle configurations.

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[kscarbel2]

Navistar showcases new and ‘refreshed’ trucks

Michael Catarevas, Fleet Owner  /  October 11, 2017

Ride and drive at Indiana proving grounds spotlights engine improvements as well.

NEW CARLISLE, IN. It was a virtual and extended rush hour at Navistar’s 675-acre proving grounds this week as the OEM showcased a variety of its brand new and recently upgraded truck and tractor models during a special ride and drive event for journalists.

The facility’s three-mile, three-lane oval, and its fearsome durability severe service route challenged all-new International HV Series utility, dump and day cab models, alongside upgraded versions of the OEM’s HX Series trucks, introduced back in February of 2016, plus the LT linehaul and RH regional model tractors, introduced in September of 2016 and April of 2017, respectively.

Navistar executives were very bullish on what the future holds where those trucks are concerned and especially concerning the new partnership with Volkswagen – cemented just this past March – which will provide additional engineering know-how to keep making them better.

“These products are about putting the driver first,” explained Denny Mooney, Navistar’s senior vice president of global product development. “We know there’s a driver shortage in the industry and we have really tried to make these trucks what they want to drive. When we talk to our big fleet customers they tell us, ‘if our drivers don’t want to drive your trucks, we’re not going to buy your trucks.’ You can have great fuel economy, you can have great attributes, but at the end of the day, drivers have to want to drive them.”

For example, when Navistar began upgrading its LT Series tractor, Mooney said the OEM held a lot of driver clinics to find what they liked or didn’t like about the truck. “What I like as an engineer might not be what drivers like,” he stressed.

Mooney also pointed to new technology improvements designed to appeal to drivers and fleets alike.

“New [air] disc brakes fit into this driver-first philosophy,” he said. “The trucks are easier to drive. Disc brakes aren’t as ‘grabby’ as the old drum brakes. The life of a disc brake is longer, and some of the fleets are starting to realize it. Our disc brake penetration has doubled in the last two years. We made them standard on the LT in June of this year.”

He emphasized that demand for collision mitigation systems are starting to take off as well. “We made it standard on the LT when we launched it last year,” Mooney said. “Predictive cruise control is another technology starting to take hold. It looks ahead two to three miles and judges the topography of the road, deciding what speed and shifts to be in, and there’s real-world fuel economy improvement.”

Navistar also showcased its new 12.4-liter A26 engine in two tractors for test drives – one cranking out 450 hp and 1,700 lb.-ft. of torque in a 6x4 LT Series tractor equipped with a 56-in. sleeper and the other rated at 400 hp and generating 1,750 lb.-ft. of torque in a 6x4 RH daycab model.  

The company said the A26 is 5% more fuel-efficient than its previous 12.4-liter unit, with oil change intervals increased up to 70,000 miles.

“We put a new turbocharger on it,” noted Mooney. “It’s a single turbo where we used to have a twin turbo. It’s a simpler turbo, a VGT [variable geometry turbocharger]. It’s got low-end and high-end power.”

The whole philosophy, he explained, is to simplify the engine – make it easier to service, less complex, and with less weight.

“It’s the lightest big bore engine in the market. It’s also a great vocational engine,” Mooney added. “Those types of trucks love light weight, like cement mixers, etc.”

David Majors, Navistar vice president of product development, told Fleet Owner that part of the OEM’s new design philosophy is to “use a lot of the same switches, dials and gauges clustered from the LT launch, to maximize the usage and volume of those parts.”

That way, fleets that operate multiple vehicles will have “a very common interior” for them to use, he added.

Heating, ventilation and air conditioning or “HVAC” upgrades also proved to be a major engineering focal point, Majors explained.

“We’ve improved the air conditioning units, with five vents, so if you have a bench seat the center passenger is comfortable,” he said. “The HVAC system has been completely redesigned so the defrost performance is best in class.”

Steve Gilligan, Navistar’s vice president of product and vocational marketing, said the company is particularly excited about its new HV trucks.

“We led with the LT, followed with the RH, and now the HV, and in a few months there will be the MVs,” he said. “So we’re on a plan to update every model.”

From an economic standpoint, Gilligan said Navistar is projecting a “really strong” construction market going forward.

“We have seen quite a bit of growth in daycab, seen it accelerate faster than sleeper, and we’re also seeing construction and off-highway growing faster as well,” he pointed out. “And that’s before any sort of stimulus plans. It all bodes well for 2018.”

Jeff Sass, Navistar’s senior vice president for North America truck sales and marketing, expressed further confidence going forward regarding the overall volume for truck sales.

“Medium-duty is up three-ish percent [in sales], and Class 8s up half a point year-over-year,” he said. “I see the economy being strong in 2018, freight rates going up and it being a big year for manufacturing. Fleets say they have more loads than drivers. They tell me they’ll buy every truck we can sell that has a driver in it.”

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Testing trucks at Navistar's proving grounds

Fleet Owner  /  October 12, 2017

Navistar brought a slew of its new and “enhanced” truck and tractor models – including the all-new International HV Series in a variety of vocational configurations – to its 675-acre proving grounds in New Carlisle, IN, this week as part of a ride and drive event for journalists. The facility’s three-mile, three-lane oval, and off-road "severe service" durability course gave journalists a chance to get an up-close, hands-on feel for Navistar’s product line, including trucks equipped with its proprietary 12.4-liter A26 engine.

Photo gallery - http://fleetowner.com/trucks/testing-trucks-navistars-proving-grounds#slide-0-field_images-228441

[RoadwayR]

Hmmm, MV's.....  Wonder if there will be any surprises in store for their high volume medium duties other than the redesigned cab.

[DailyDiesel]

The HX with a sleeper is good looking machine. Hope Kenworth is paying attention. 

[Maxidyne]

Was looking at the prices they're offering to our DOT for the HX and they're pretty competitive.