Daimler Truck Financial has announced achieving the No. 1 ranking in the annual dealer satisfaction survey conducted by the American Truck Dealers (ATD), a division of the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA).
Daimler Truck Financial, the captive finance company supporting Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA) dealers selling Freightliner and Western Star trucks, said it “recaptured the top spot from Paccar Finance,” which supports Kenworth and Peterbilt dealers with financing.
Daimler Truck Financial and Paccar Finance have been “battling it out for the top spot for the past six ATD surveys with Daimler taking the No. 1 ranking in 2004, ‘05, ‘07 and ’09 while Paccar won in 2006 and ’08,”noted the company. Daimler Truck Financial also stated it delivered the largest year-over-year increase with a 15%t improvement on last year’s score and recorded the highest score since ATD started measuring captives in 2004.
“Our dealers recognized the substantial efforts that our employees are making each and every day to support our dealers’ business,” said Richard Howard, head of Daimler Truck Financial. “Our score and ranking is especially significant given the environment we are operating in today and the considerable changes our employees had to go through the last two years.”
The annual ATD survey is mailed to medium- and heavy-duty new truck dealers in the U.S. Dealers evaluate their original equipment manufacturer (OEM) in the following categories: Value, Marketing, Policy Parts, People and Finance. In the Finance category, dealers rank their satisfaction with their captive finance partner in these six areas:
- Range of products available to dealers
- Range of products available to customers
- Competitive programs relative to rates and terms for new and used vehicles
- Timeliness of response from the captive
- Quality of sales & marketing staff assistance when needed
- Availability of capital at competitive rates to the dealer-owned leasing company
“We will continue to be proactive with our dealers in working closely with them and listening carefully to their concerns to ensure that we are constantly developing new initiatives and trying to enhance current offerings,” Howard said.
Brad Fauvre, CEO of Velocity Vehicle Group of Los Angeles, which operates Freightliner dealerships in L.A., San Diego and Las Vegas, said Daimler Truck Financial’s top ranking is a result of being a strong finance partner with the Freightliner dealer body.
“They are making sure everyone is successful for the long haul,” he said. “They have demonstrated their responsiveness to the dealer body by fixing systems, re-designing processes for quick credit decisions and by improving their flexibility during the downturn.”
Fauvre, chairman of the Daimler Truck North America dealer council, added that Daimler Truck Financial is “a consistent provider of market-appropriate programs like leasing rates for vocational customers. Unlike the banks that get in and out of the market, Daimler Truck Financial only does truck financing and they are always focused on the end-user and that makes them a very consistent partner.”
