Winning Formula

Customer advocacy has been a point of focus for Stephen Downes, Freightliner Director for Daimler Truck & Bus Pacific, as the North American brand continues its pursuit of bringing the latest innovations to market.

Prime Mover: How has acceptance been for the Cascadia in the local markets?
Stephen Downes: The Cascadia has been really good for us and customer acceptance has been fantastic. Feedback in terms of fuel economy, as well as from the drivers’ perspectives, is first rate.

PM: How have the dealers responded to the Cascadia?
SD: They love it. Without going over old ground, Freightliner’s product quality now is streets in front of what it used to be. Having a class-leading product to sell and support is something that they really appreciate.

PM: What’s the immediate future hold for Cascadia?
SD: There’s a big push in North America to continuously upgrade Cascadia in the safety and connectivity areas so we’ll keep bringing that type of innovation to the market here. The safety features Freightliner has generally are on par with what’s in Europe and in a lot of ways the factory developed connectivity we have is superior. The great thing about Daimler Trucks North America is they are very commercial and pragmatic about those sorts of features. They don’t just work in ideological concepts — they operate in what’s going to work for customers and operators and aren’t afraid to take the lead.

PM: What else can we expect?
SD: From a safety perspective, they are embracing technology more and more to deliver not only a safer environment for the driver, but other road-users as well, by leveraging things like cameras and advanced radar technologies, some of which are already in place and some they are expanding. In the connectivity space there is a real push there to come up with structures and systems which are a benefit to operators in terms of how they manage the information they can get back about their truck and their drivers. Data is really powerful and if you’ve got the right information, you can manage it. If you haven’t, it is like flying blind, relying on what you’ve always done and that’s not always the most effective way of operating. We see a whole lot of different operators, and we don’t see all of the details, but the ones that we get the impression are running the best operations are the ones who utilise that data to their advantage.

PM: Other than safety and connectivity, what else is Freightliner working on?
SD: Freightliner has always had a methodology where they want to deliver continuous fuel economy improvement year over year so there are a few things around aerodynamics and some other areas they are leveraging to get the desired results.

PM: Is there a conscious effort to build a reputation for durability of the Cascadia?
SD: No, the Cascadia is proving its durability all by itself. We know our customers are thrilled with the durability of these trucks and the word-of-mouth has been brilliant for us. The guys in the US are relentless with their testing, including putting them on the test track and flogging them mercilessly. But from an operator perspective, Australians typically like to have a truck prove itself on our roads in our conditions. I believe the best way that we have been able to overcome criticism levelled at us in the past over durability is to get bums in seats and let the customer see it for themselves.

PM: There’s a confidence that this is a significant step up for the brand?
SD: The manufacturing quality and design of the Cascadia is like nothing that came before it and our customers are experiencing that out on the road. The first Cascadia test unit that came to Australia has 800,000km on it and you would never know because it is as tight as a drum. Customer advocacy is something we certainly work hard at. There are two camps: some have always been Freightliner people and those were some of the early adopters and have been rewarded with the performance and they are perfectly happy. There have been a few others who have been staunch competitor-buyers and they have taken a little more work to get on board, but we found once we get them in Cascadia and we give them a good understanding of how the product works and what they can do to make it work for them, we really get good cut through.

PM: Can you explain why Cascadia is North America’s biggest selling heavy-duty truck?
SD: They are a good value, high performing truck. Locally, we talk about the total cost of ownership, and the sticker price is one thing but when you look at what’s included from the four-year warranty to the Best Basic servicing for half a million kilometres, all combined with the fuel economy savings, it’s a great value proposition. It adds up to what we believe, and what our Australian customers are telling us, is a pretty compelling decision just on fuel economy alone. We’ve had a testimonial from a customer who said the fuel savings that he’s experienced is enough to cover the payments on the truck. That’s a win in anyone’s language.

PM: Are the local sales figures a true reflection of the demand for Cascadia?
SD: If we could have got our hands on more we could have sold more. The momentum is there. There are a lot of customers who are talking about how great the product is and we know they’ve seen the savings to the bottom line. And driver acceptance has been good. I’m not wanting to cast aspersions, but drivers these days are not required to do what they did 40 years ago. Today, operators are looking for a truck which is as comfortable and easy to drive as possible. We know the driver pool is getting older so they probably value the comfort and ergonomics more than they might have when they were 25.

PM: Is the Cascadia too sophisticated?
SD: One of the great things that Freightliner does is, they don’t try to over complicate things. Despite the fact that they’ve got a very healthy collection of safety and connectivity systems, they are all integrated in such a way that they are as least intrusive as possible. So, when you need them, they’re there, but not when you don’t. Cascadia has always had that high level of safety technology as standard from day one and we maintain that’s what people should be getting. We will be a dominant player in the fuel efficiency space, not just because of the aerodynamics but due to factors such as the integrated driveline. Importantly, it will be one of the safest, if not the safest truck, with second-to-none driver comfort.