Going American

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by roKWiz

That;s crap. Amazon, Walmart, UPS, FedEx and lots of others others all use doubles on the Westcoast and central area's. Eastcoast roads are less long truck friendly but even then they allow 53 foot and 9ft wide trailers.

None of this explains the super long wheelbase Pete's that are stupidly stretched to 300 in WB's. Back in the day those same stretched prime movers had a useful drom (Dromodary) box behind the cab for extra freight space but went out of fashion with the new steering wheel attendants.

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Only reason hoods are popular there is manufacturers don't build what owner want, sound familiar, FORD. The Yanks are just dying to get their hands on K220's but Oz won't export them.

I can't believe this attitude, yes I understand Kenworth has enough business in Australia as it is with huge wait queues, but why would you ever turn down new customers? There's a market of 330M people who want your product, build a bigger factory and help your supply chain reach your requirements. Plus I'm sure if you expand the line your existing customers are going to be happy getting their $500,000 truck sooner rather than waiting 3 years.

I've never been happy with existing sales figures, celebrate your wins but it can always be more looking at different avenues and opportunities.

[roKWiz]

Originally Posted by Franco Cozzo

I can't believe this attitude, yes I understand Kenworth has enough business in Australia as it is with huge wait queues, but why would you ever turn down new customers? There's a market of 330M people who want your product, build a bigger factory and help your supply chain reach your requirements. Plus I'm sure if you expand the line your existing customers are going to be happy getting their $500,000 truck sooner rather than waiting 3 years.

I've never been happy with existing sales figures, celebrate your wins but it can always be more looking at different avenues and opportunities.

Canadian's want them too, but I guess it would be not worth them doing this.
I'm sure KTA are happy to plod along here.
Exporting gliders would have been the way to go, but the Demo Republic of Commiefornia's CARB put a stop to them.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by roKWiz

Canadian's want them too, but I guess it would be not worth them doing this.
I'm sure KTA are happy to plod along here.
Exporting gliders would have been the way to go, but the Demo Republic of Commiefornia's CARB put a stop to them.

Not wrong about wanting to plod along here, they're a bastard of a customer to have but I was having some wins by getting into the ear of their engineers rather than their purchasing team

I can't believe the difference between PACCAR Parts and Kenworth, one supplies the trucks out on the road and the other builds them, the former goes absolutely above and beyond for their customers and the latter can't be ****ed lifting a finger, its like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

[roKWiz]

Originally Posted by Franco Cozzo

Not wrong about wanting to plod along here, they're a bastard of a customer to have but I was having some wins by getting into the ear of their engineers rather than their purchasing team

I can't believe the difference between PACCAR Parts and Kenworth, one supplies the trucks out on the road and the other builds them, the former goes absolutely above and beyond for their customers and the latter can't be ****ed lifting a finger, its like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

We know, we know, move on.
When you become boss of KTA they might sit up and listen.

[Full Noise]

Originally Posted by Franco Cozzo

I can't believe this attitude, yes I understand Kenworth has enough business in Australia as it is with huge wait queues, but why would you ever turn down new customers? There's a market of 330M people who want your product, build a bigger factory and help your supply chain reach your requirements. Plus I'm sure if you expand the line your existing customers are going to be happy getting their $500,000 truck sooner rather than waiting 3 years.

I've never been happy with existing sales figures, celebrate your wins but it can always be more looking at different avenues and opportunities.

There's a whole heap of legal reasons as to why this doesn't happen. The USA doesn't allow the importation of commercial vehicles. Trade agreements with Canada and Mexico are exemptions. That's why when the Monaro went to the USA, people were asking why the SS ute didn't go as well as they would have sold a metric s#!tload of them. All of the Volvo trucks that you see on the roads over there are produced in the USA as well. Now taking into account that Kenworth alone produces around 80,000 units a year for the US market, there is no way that Kenworth Australia could ever produce any amount that could remotely put a dent in any sales figures there considering that Kenworth Australia produces around 1400 units a year and wait times have blown out to two years. The issue of the low AUD to the USD is also a major reason why this will never happen.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by Full Noise

There's a whole heap of legal reasons as to why this doesn't happen. The USA doesn't allow the importation of commercial vehicles. Trade agreements with Canada and Mexico are exemptions. That's why when the Monaro went to the USA, people were asking why the SS ute didn't go as well as they would have sold a metric s#!tload of them. All of the Volvo trucks that you see on the roads over there are produced in the USA as well. Now taking into account that Kenworth alone produces around 80,000 units a year for the US market, there is no way that Kenworth Australia could ever produce any amount that could remotely put a dent in any sales figures there considering that Kenworth Australia produces around 1400 units a year and wait times have blown out to two years. The issue of the low AUD to the USD is also a major reason why this will never happen.

I'm guessing there's a commercial vehicle version of the 'chicken tax' which is their 25% tariff which is designed to prevent competition of their own manufacturing industry on light commercial vehicles.

Kenworth was struggling to build over 12 trucks a day on their Bayswater production line as their supply chain couldn't keep up, and then post COVID lockdowns they had issues with a heap of inexperienced new staff on the production line.