Freightliner’s Inside Man

Martin Daum Photo: Daimler Trucks North America

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Martin Daum is the type of fellow who gets things done. Case in point: Last year, in his role as president and chief executive officer of Daimler Trucks North America, Daum got The Rolling Stones to play at the American Trucking Associations’ convention in Las Vegas to help Freightliner celebrate the launch of its new Cascadia model Class 8 truck.

Do you have any idea how difficult it is to negotiate with Mick Jagger or to get The Rolling Stones to do anything?

Last week, Daimler Trucks North America caught a huge break when the Supervisory Board of Daimler AG – essentially the strategic/leadership committee that guides Daimler’s worldwide operations – named Daum to its Board of Management with responsibility for the company’s global truck and bus operations. He is succeeding Wolfgang Bernhard, who left for personal reasons, Daimler said, after overseeing some of the most stunning technological advances the trucking industry has witnessed in decades.

I have to think my friends at Daimler Trucks North America were turning backflips when the announcement was made. Because Martin Daum oversaw Freightliner attain the dominant position in Class 8 marketshare during his tenure and is intimately familiar with the wants and needs of this market. The news that Daum will now head up Daimler’s global truck and bus business cannot be construed as anything but positive for the Freightliner and Western Star brands.

North America – and the United States in particular – remains the preeminent truck market in the world. Daimler has hardly ignored this part of the world, as its recent technological and marketshare successes confirm.

But now, with the global head of the company’s truck and bus operations taking over fresh from the States, it seems logical to assume that Daum’s intimate knowledge of this market, the concerns …Read the rest of this story

Source:: http://www.truckinginfo.com/blog/truck-tech/story/2017/03/freightliner-s-inside-man.aspx