Market Share

[Steve Frazier]

I made a 400+ mile round trip today on the NY State Thruway and began noticing there were quite a few Freightliners on the road. As the trip progressed, I kept seeing more and more Freightliners so I started counting. Nearly every third truck was a Freightliner!! The next frequent brand I saw was Volvo, followed by International. Then Kenworth and Peterbilt were about even, followed by a handful of Macks. I saw about 4 Western Stars total. Noticeably absent were Ford, Chevrolet and GMC, these manufacturers once clogged the highways. Although my count method wasn't scientific, I think it's safe to say that Freightliner and Volvo comprised nearly 50% of the trucks I saw on my trip across NY!!

 

[C R A F T]

Could it be because Freightliner is owned by Mercedes, and they're running the Mercedes Engines in them ?? …. We too see alot of newer fruitloops up here running freight …. for a while the Sterlings were gaining in the polls, pricing & Mercedes engines ???? …..Who knows ???

 

[Steve Frazier]

My guess would be price. Nearly all the fleet trucks I saw were Freightliner, the smaller freight companies and independents were other brands, although some of them were the Cascadia, their full dress offering. I have a body upfitter nearby where I live, and I bet 50% or more of the trucks going through his shop fitted as municipal trucks are Freightliners where International had that market nearly wrapped up. I've had occasion to drive a few in years past but not regularly, they would be rentals we used during the holiday push. As I recall, their quality was so so, I wonder if that has improved?

 

[C R A F T]

Well they deff have improved over the years i'll say ….not that long ago they still had that dumb A** dual windshields, with all those damn blind spots … a centre post the size of a tree …… Yahh they've come along way !!

I think when Interbinder was still King of the hill in sales …. well when you looked at the stats they had and sold so many versions of single axles, long, short, air-brakes, juice-brakes, ect. ect. ….it only seemed natural for fleets to stay with Interbinder up to the class-8's …. kinda one stop shopping for them

We have an FL-60 5/6 man crew cab at our hall …. Rescue-11, it is a sweet nimble easy to drive truck, great visibility for the short bum-bums …. a hell of a diff over the old cab'd truck of yesteryear ……… I'm keeping my eyes open for a crew FL70 on air , flat-deck or small dump to replace the old Louis L-8000 , i'm beating up the 1-ton at 30,500 lbs gross with the Bcat and attachments … it'd be nice to have one rig to pull it around and also be able to tow the 14 tonne excavator around too ….. used an Interbinder last year, it was a '99 4900 crew flat-deck'd truck on air … had a roll-over fifth wheel and pintle hitch with the air connections and had extra built-in BIG fuel tanks to haul fuel around for the machines c/w Fill-Rite pumps ….. it was a custom build by a friend of mine ….. but it does have the usual Binder electrical issues, but then don't they all ?

All Kingdoms have to fall sometime, maybe the Freightliners are the New "King of the Hills"