Q&A: A Truck Dealer Talks About Industry Challenges
Jodie Teuton
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Jodie Teuton
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Jodie Teuton, vice president of Kenworth of Louisiana, talks about how issues facing truck dealers are impacting fleets as well as shares her thoughts on the challenges dealers face today. Kenworth of Louisiana is a full-service dealership with seven locations throughout Louisiana. The dealership sells and services Kenworth and Hino trucks.
HDT: The American Truck Dealers has been actively working to get the Federal Excise Tax on trucks repealed. How will the repeal affect fleets?
Teuton: It would roll back the high price of a truck. When we talk about tax reform in this country, we think that the time is right to repeal FET. The $12,000 to $22,000 FET adds to the purchase price of a new truck is egregious in my opinion. If you know anything about excise tax, you know that it is loosely called a sin tax. Tell me what is sinful about trucks? We have excise tax on alcohol and those kinds of things. The FET on trucks was enacted during WWI to help fund the war.
We keep talking about the need to have clean trucks on the road. We are all for clean air. The earth is a closed system and we must take care of it. But the way to keep the air clean is to get trucks off the road that are not clean. To do this, we need to put new trucks on the road.
Fleets, like any other business, have to stay in the black to keep going. Yet the cost of the trucks keeps going up and up. How much can the customer bear? FET is a disincentive for fleets to buy cleaner trucks.
Trucking has given. It is time for us to get a break. Trucking as a whole is paying a whole lot more than our fair share. …Read the rest of this story
