A Favourite Truck With North American Road Haulage Operators Sells in Record Numbers

NORTH AMERICA – Having only last month announced that its truck division was to split into four separate named units including Mack and Renault, Volvo Trucks North America has this month posted record results achieving all-time highs in 2015 for the US, Canada and NAFTA Class 8 retail sales. The company’s US retail market share was a record 12.4% in 2015, 0.4% better than the previous year. The trucks, popular with many road haulage freight operators sold in big numbers, 30,930 in the US and 4,884 in Canada, up 1% to 16.3% of the market.

Volvo also achieved a record 12.2% NAFTA market share (36,940 vehicles), compared with 11.9% (32,281) in 2014 whilst Volvo market share in Mexico was 4.9%. The strong performance also resulted in the production of more commercial vehicles than ever before at its New River Valley Assembly plant, based in Dublin, Virginia, where all Volvo models for North America are assembled. Gӧran Nyberg, president of Volvo Trucks North America observed:

“We are very proud of our people, whose dedication allowed us to make these great achievements. It’s clear from our strong performance that the market continues to see the fuel efficiency benefits offered by our powertrain and aerodynamic truck design, combined with our commitment to maximizing Uptime for customers. While we are very pleased with our 2015 results, we will continue to seek opportunities to make advancements in products, service and support that positively impact the bottom line of our customers.”

Volvo’s focus on Uptime also was a key driver of the strong performance. Volvo’s North Uptime Centre, based near its North American headquarters in Greensboro, N.C., brings together key support employees and technology under one roof to help ensure that customers’ trucks keep moving. The Uptime Centre serves as the home for Volvo Action Service (VAS) staff, Volvo’s 24/7 support experts, who receive alerts via Remote Diagnostics when monitored fault codes appear.

Remote Diagnostics is Volvo’s telematics-based proactive diagnostic and repair planning system that monitors critical fault codes. When an issue is detected, the system identifies what parts will be needed and provides technicians with straightforward repair instructions, even before the truck arrives for service. Volvo says Remote Diagnostics can reduce the diagnostic time by up to 70% and lower repair time by more than 20%. Nearly 100,000 Volvo trucks are equipped with the system, which has been standard on all Volvo-powered models since 2013.

Our photo shows the Samsung Safety Truck, a project undertaken with Volvo in Argentina and now destined for a year’s on the road trials. The system is designed to reduce accidents and the truck is equipped with two forward facing cameras able to produce a clear picture of the road ahead even in poor light or weather conditions.

The system then transmits the live images to four linked Samsung OH46D video walls, making a huge picture to following vehicles to allow them to know when it is safe to overtake. The screens are weatherproof and, as can be seen, produce an image large enough to be viewed clearly by following drivers. The system has won numerous awards including a place in the ‘25 best inventions of 2015’ from Time magazine.