New Merc boss lays out road ahead
After just 100 days in post as director of Mercedes- Benz Truck Europe and Latin America, Karin Rådström faced investors and press at a Daimler Truck Strategy Day conference. Daimler Trucks is seeking investors for a prepared separation from Mercedes’ car division.
Born in rival Scania’s home town of Södertälje, Ms Rådström had worked for Scania since 2004, most recently as director of sales and marketing.
At a conference otherwise dominated by Daimler’s future plans to decarbonise road transport, her public debut was notable for its searing honesty in identifying current problems and setting out the route to putting them right.
Performance of the Mercedes- Benz Truck brand in Europe had fallen off in recent years, she admitted, and the company should be returning double-digit profit percentages, while customer satisfaction with the product and its support had also declined.
In 2012, it had enjoyed a market share of 23 per cent, but it was now at 20 per cent. In terms of ranking among the seven truck brands in Europe it was ranked number four in terms of profit, number five in terms of sales and number six in terms of service: a long way from where it should be given its global size, heritage, and its dominance of the North American market.
“We lost touch with customers, and costs rose,” she admitted. “Trucks were developed with emphasis on technical perfection rather than what customers wanted or could afford.
“We are putting this right by re-connecting our engineers with our customers: hence today we are trialling our eActros with operators.
“On a broader front, our customers tell us that Mercedes is difficult to do business with, too big an organisation that takes too long to make decisions. And we are far from the ‘benchmark brand’ when it comes to service. So, our new focus is on ‘retail’ and improving our parts availability and delivery dates as we move from seeking market share to achieving customer satisfaction.”
Ms Rådström was asked by Transport Operator whether operators really wanted features like touchscreens and Mirrorcams in their trucks, in reference to a perception in some quarters that the company’s reputation for solid mechanical reliability was being tarnished by electronic issues.
She responded that there was a spread of acceptability among operators: some customers liked the touchscreens and Mirrorcams, while others did not and preferred traditional systems and controls. Mercedes could offer them a choice.
Where problems occurred, she said, Mercedes would work hard to get customers back on the road in the short term, and deal with why the problem had occurred and how to prevent it recurring in the future.
Daimler Truck CEO Martin Daum added that it could be argued that an old rotary dial telephone set was more reliable than a modern smartphone – but a smartphone could do so many more things that a dial telephone could not.
“We need electronics for safety systems. They save lives,” he said.
His remarks closing the conference again emphasised the crucial need to improve the company’s performance in Europe.
