Navistar International Corp. pulled back its market strategy curtain to provide an overview of its Vision 2025, a joint company and dealer network strategy that aims to make the OEM the premier solutions provider and OEM of choice for trucking customers across North America. Developed in collaboration with its extensive dealer network, Navistar’s Vision 2025 sets a clear path for the future: to be the most customer-centric, innovative, and value-creating truck and bus solutions provider in the Americas, united with the most capable and aligned network in the industry.

“Vision 2025 reflects a new level of company-dealer collaboration, one that’s built on transparency, trust and shared goals,” said Friedrich Baumann, president of aftersales and alliance management with Navistar. “While many future actions are still in the works, the foundation of Vision 2025 is already in place, and is starting to provide significant benefits to our customers, who are at the center of this strategic direction.”

Baumann and the Aftersales leadership team pointed to two major customer-focused initiatives that are part of the Vision 2025 strategy: Navistar’s operating launch of its new partnership with Love’s Travel Stops and the company’s opening of its new Parts Distribution Center near Memphis, Tenn.

• Love’s launch: As of August 1, the Navistar partnership with Love’s Travel Stops is fully operational. This establishes the commercial transportation industry’s largest service network, with more than 1,000 locations in North America. Most Love’s and Speedco service locations are authorized to perform standard, extended and used warranty work with service repair times of three hours or less for all International Class 6-8 trucks.
• Memphis PDC opening: On Monday, August 26, Navistar’s new 300,000-sq.-ft. parts distribution center (PDC) will open in Olive Branch, Miss. The state-of-the-art facility serves regional dealers with stock and emergency orders, and due to its centralized location and proximity to the FedEx World Hub in Memphis, Tenn., enables next-day parts delivery to more than 95% of its dealers’ service locations while extending order cut-off times to 11 p.m.

How Vision 2025 was developed

Last spring, Navistar’s Executive Leadership Team and the Executive Dealer Council worked together to develop and support an agile, forward-thinking committee to differentiate the International Truck network from all others in the industry. The Vision 2025 Committee is comprised of eight members—half represent Navistar and the remaining half represent the Dealer Network.

Navistar also established its Aftersales business division, now led by Baumann. Aftersales manages every facet of the business after the sale of the truck, including oversight of parts sales and distribution operations, customer service and technology, uptime and total cost of ownership, integrated warranty, as well as dealer network management and development. Instrumental was Baumann’s professional background in the commercial vehicle industry, which includes heading Daimler Trucks North America’s Aftermarket business unit for many years.

Besides the progress already made with the Love’s partnership and the Memphis PDC, Navistar is further improving the company’s dealer parts inventory management system and targeting several additional improvements in reducing total cost of ownership for the customer.

“Vision 2025 has created a solid foundation between Navistar and its dealer body to become the OEM of choice for customers—changes that are owned jointly by Navistar and the dealers,” Baumann adds. “Vision 2025 establishes trust, alignment and commitment between ourselves and our dealers in order to deliver best-in-class value to our shared customers.”