In one of the toughest environments for the US trucking industry in years, Daimler Truck Financial achieved the number-one ranking in the annual dealer satisfaction survey conducted by the American Truck Dealers (ATD), a division of the National Automobile Dealers Association.
As the captive finance company supporting Daimler Trucks North America dealers selling Freightliner and Western Star brands, Daimler Truck Financial recaptured the top spot from Paccar Finance, which supports dealers selling Kenworth and Peterbilt brands.
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 top ranking in 2004, ‘05, ‘07, and ‘09 while Paccar won in 2006 and ‘08. Daimler Truck Financial delivered the largest year-over-year increase with a 15% improvement on 2008’s score and recorded the highest score since ATD started measuring captives in 2004.
The annual ATD survey is mailed to medium- and heavy-duty new truck dealers in the United States. Dealers evaluate their original equipment manufacturer (OEM) in these categories: Value, Marketing, Policy Parts, People, and Finance.
Other OEM captive finance firms rated by dealers in the ATD survey are: Mack Commercial, Volvo Financial, Ford Motor Credit, International Finance, and GMAC.