Downward spiral: Big hit for U.S., Canadian heavy duty truck sales in July

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CALSTART maps supplier base for fuel saving technologies

A new white paper issued by the clean transportation advocacy group CALSTART attempts to map out all of the U.S.

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Ford offers STX package for F-150 and F-Series Super Duty

Ford is offering the STX Appearance Package will be available for 2017 F-150 and Super Duty trucks, building on the previous generation F-150 STX. This will be the first time F-Series Super Duty is offered with the STX package.

“STX is for customers who want the utility of an F-Series truck in a stylish, well-optioned package at a competitive price,” said Doug Scott, Ford truck group marketing manager.

Features include:

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FMCSA Shows Drivers How to Share the Road with Trucks

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has launched Our Roads, Our Responsibility, a safety-focused campaign to raise public awareness about how to operate safely around large commercial vehicles.

The campaign will explain how to operate around large trucks and buses, which have significant size and weight differences, blind spots, long stopping distances and limited maneuverability. With nearly 12 million commercial vehicles registered in the U.S. driving more around 300 billion miles, FMCSA aims to educate passenger vehicle drivers, bicyclists, and pedestrians.

A website, ShareTheRoadSafely.gov, offers visitors access to public service announcements, infographics, tips and fact sheets, a PDF with suggested social media content, and more.

Under the Our Roads, Our Responsibility campaign, FMCSA suggests the following tips while sharing the road with CMVs:

• Stay out of the “no zones” or blind spots around the front, back and sides of the vehicle
• Pass safely and make sure you can see the driver in the mirror before passing
• Don't cut it close while merging in front of a CMV
• Anticipate wide turns and consider larger vehicles may require extra turning room
• Stay focused on the road around you and avoid distraction
• Be patient driving around large trucks and buses

“Our Roads, Our Responsibility supports our agency's core mission of reducing crashes, injuries, and fatalities involving commercial motor vehicles on our roadways,” said Scott Darling, FMCSA administrator. “Roadway safety is a shared responsibility, and this initiative encourages everyone who uses our roads to be champions for safety. We look forward to working with all our partners to raise awareness around this issue.”

Related: FMCSA Proposes Taking Closer Look at Non-Preventable Crashes

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Q&A: FCA US Fleet Business Chief Jeff Kommor

Photo of Kommor courtesy of FCA.

Jeff Kommor, vice president - U.S. Sales Operations, Fleet and Small Business Sales for FCA US LLC, has been on the job since last October. He recently spoke with HDT sister publication Automotive Fleet about a variety of fleet-related topics. Following are excerpts from the interview.

AF: What message would you like to convey to fleet managers about yourself and your philosophy toward fleet sales?

Kommor: I've been visiting and talking with a lot of fleet customers since taking over this job six months ago, and the one message I have for all of them is simply this: FCA is committed to your business. I'm responsible for both retail and fleet sales at FCA, so I have a very personal interest in making sure the fleet side of the house gets treated fairly and equally. The old saying, "the buck stops here" has never been more true. FCA is “all in” when it comes to our commercial fleet business, and I'm in a pretty good spot to make things happen for our fleet customers.

AF: What are your short- and long-term goals to grow commercial fleet sales for FCA?

Kommor: My biggest goals are to achieve competitive advantages in three key areas: industry-best [on-time delivery], world-class service support after the sale, and leading-edge product features tailored to commercial customers. These are attributes that will meaningfully set us apart from the competition. The purchase decision process for today's commercial fleet customer takes into account a lot more than just [total cost of ownership]. I think we're doing a good job of addressing the full spectrum of their needs, but we can always get better — and we will.

AF: What is FCA's outlook for the commercial segment of the fleet market for 2016 and beyond?

Kommor: Certainly for the balance of 2016, the outlook for the commercial fleet market is positive. At FCA we are running significantly higher than last year's sales, led by our Ram, Jeep, and Dodge brands. Demand for our Ram ProMaster Cargo van continues to grow at a rapid pace — to the point where we are now adding a second shift at our production facility to keep up. Our ProMaster City cargo van sales are also well ahead of target, and our Dodge Grand Caravan commercial sales are up more than 100% versus this same time period last year. Best of all, we're experiencing the same success with our government fleet sales. The Dodge Charger Pursuit essentially owns the police sedan market.

Beyond 2016, I see the commercial fleet market continuing at a healthy sales pace for at least the next year or so. All the right factors are in place for our customers: low interest rates, affordable fuel prices, increasingly more capable vehicles designed specifically for the commercial market, and a trend toward stable TCOs despite the addition of significant new safety and fuel-saving technology features. I really like FCA's chances for continued commercial fleet market share growth in this type of environment.

Related: Cargo Vans: Prosperity as a Problem

AF: What do you see as being the top trends currently facing the commercial fleet market, and how are these trends going to play out in the future?

Kommor: The commercial fleet market is constantly evolving, but cost-containment and driver safety are always at or near the top of our customers' list of concerns. The end result is a steady march toward the deployment of more vehicle technology related to these concerns — particularly active safety systems and fuel management systems. FCA has these technologies available now, and we believe they make our products very attractive.

A second and more recent trend — and one that's putting a lot of wind into FCA's sails — is the shifting fleet preferences between vehicle segments. Five years ago, a lot of skeptics wondered about our focused investment in crossover vehicles. Today, we're reaping the benefits of that decision as a growing number of fleet managers are considering and choosing crossovers instead of mid-size sedans.

A similar example of preference shifts seems to be happening in the cargo van segment where — as a result of the massive fleet migration to Euro-style cargo vans — we're starting to sense a void for minivan-sized vehicles, and we're now happily be able to fill that need with our all-new Chrysler Pacifica. Even with 37 segment-first innovations on this new vehicle, fleet buyers have been very pleased to learn that the Pacifica's TCO is very competitive.

Another movement that's receiving a lot of fleet managers' attention these days is the electrification of vehicle powertrains. No one is quite sure how this will all play out in the fleet world, especially with relatively affordable prices for gasoline and diesel fuels continuing for the foreseeable future, but all OEMs including FCA have to keep an eye on developments in this area and build products that can meet the changing needs of the fleet market. I'm not sure too many of the electrified vehicles currently offered for sale can truly say they are designed with fleet buyers in mind. Our all-new Chrysler Pacifica will finally offer fleet managers a viable option for a full-sized electric vehicle that can address their people and their cargo-carrying needs.

AF: What initiatives is FCA developing to make it easier for fleet managers to do business with FCA?

Kommor: Improving the way we do business has really been an obsession of mine since I took over fleet operations, and it's a hot topic at every one of my staff meetings. All departments are represented at the table, and we collectively figure out what we can do better from a customer perspective. One example is the way we recently simplified the vehicle re-invoicing process so our customers receive their incentive payments in a much more timely and accurate manner.

Another action we took in response to customer requests — and it's been very successful in driving faster OTD — is the inventory pool we established at the Baltimore port of entry for our Ram ProMaster City Class 1 vans. This really separates us from the competition, and with a number of our upfitter partners located within 10 miles of the port, we ensure a smooth process from selection to upfit to delivery for our customers. Depending on the upfit, we have the potential to deliver a ProMaster City to a customer within 30 days of its arrival in Baltimore.

From an after-sale perspective, our Mopar Servicenet invoicing system has been a home run since the day it was introduced. Fleet customers can have all of their maintenance and repair order billings from FCA dealerships across the country consolidated into a single monthly invoice. We also offer 0% financing and convenient payment schedules to help our customers manage their cash flow. We were the first OEM to provide this package of services, again at the request of our customers, and we recently made some improvements to keep us ahead of the pack. For example, we now provide participating fleet management companies with electronic purchase order processing via Auto Integrate, the online maintenance authorization tool.

Another item that often gets overlooked because it's become an expected delivery at the beginning of every June, is our new model year Fleet Buyer's Guide. Our 2017 model-year edition contains 244 pages of absolutely every possible product detail our fleet customers are looking for. Having seen several, I can tell you no other OEM guide is more comprehensive. Based on customer feedback, we recently added sections dedicated to Green Technology, Safety & Security, and Engines & Transmissions. Everything is arranged for quick reference, and customers can easily access it online from anywhere or download it as an iPad app.

AF: As an industry-wide issue affecting all OEMs, what is FCA doing to make its dealers more fleet-minded in terms of fleet maintenance turnaround times and fleet driver satisfaction during the courtesy deliveries process?

Kommor: We fully realize that 95% of our customer relationship occurs after the sale. During that time, fleet managers are primarily focused on maximizing uptime and minimizing operational costs, so, after a full year of talking with fleet customers and benchmarking the competition, we just launched what we think is the most comprehensive preventive maintenance and service solution of all OEMs. We call it the “Fleet Preferred Mopar Express Lane Program.” By offering our fleet customers and fleet management companies what they appreciate from the aftermarket shops today, namely convenience and nationwide pricing, we can now provide a world-class “One Stop Shop” experience for the fleet driver at our dealerships — performed by factory trained technicians using OEM parts. And, thanks to our Magneti Marelli parts brand, our dealerships are fully equipped to service all makes and models, further streamlining the fleet manager's ability to manage their business. Plus, if any warranty work is needed, it can be performed at the same time and location as the preventive maintenance — something the aftermarket shops can't offer.

Also, our 1,000 certified BusinessLink dealers offer fleet customers priority access with their Next Available Service Bay experience. For fleet customers, getting their vehicles serviced at our dealerships should be like making a pit stop during a race. Our goal is to get them back on the road in record time.

Regarding courtesy deliveries, we have ongoing dealership training which stresses the importance of a proper courtesy delivery process. A growing trend is for our dealership service managers to take charge of the courtesy delivery, which enables them to personally introduce the fleet driver to all of the dealership's service facilities and personnel that are specifically trained and dedicated to support fleet customers.

What keeps our customers coming back is when they fully realize the combined commitment our Mopar service and parts organization and our dealerships have made in facilities, tools, personnel, and processes to service the fleet customers in the unique and urgent manner they require, versus trying to fit them into a retail service operation.

Related from the archives: Up Close With Ram's New ProMaster City Van (2014)

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Court Rules NY Truck Tolls Can’t Fund Canal System

A federal court has ruled against New York State's practice of using tolls paid by interstate truckers to finance the unrelated tourism and recreation projects that make up the New York Canal System.

The U.S. District Court ruled that using toll revenue in that way violates the Constitution's Dormant Commerce Cause because the money is diverted away from interests that actually benefit trucking. The conflicting interests are centered around the Thruway Authority, which charges tolls for the use of several major arteries of interstate commerce but also owns the canal system.

The Thruway Authority has spent over 1.1 billion since 2012 maintaining and funding the canal system, with costs reaching over $100 million annually.

“The canal system is a jewel in the crown of the Empire State, and some combination of New York taxpayers, local businesses benefitting from tourism revenue and the actual users of the Canal System's many facilities should want to pay for its upkeep,” stated the Court. “But … the State of New York cannot insulate the Canal System from the vagaries of the political process and taxpayer preferences by imposing the cost of its upkeep on those on drive the New York Thruway in interstate commerce.”

American Trucking Associations expressed support for the ruling.

“ATA believed that the courts and Constitution were clear – revenue from tolls must be spent maintaining the roads they're collected on and not diverted to finance bike paths and waterways for recreational kayaking and canoeing,” said Chris Spear, ATA president and CEO. “We hope today's ruling will not only end this practice in New York, but dissuade other states from financing their budget shortfalls on the backs of our industry.”

Related: Americans Support Mileage-Based Fees to Fund Infrastructure

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FMCSA launches CMV safety campaign

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is launching a new highway safety campaign dubbed “Our Roads, Our Responsibility” that seeks to “raise public

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