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At Hannover, TCH proudly displayed its DAF alongside its other offerings such as Renault. Will this diversity of offerings continue under the new owners? |
Now here's an interesting overseas development - but is it a healthy one asks
Patrick O'Leary? PACCAR Financial Services (PFS) has announced that it has entered into an agreement to purchase Truck Center Hauser GmbH (TCH), a leading independent truck rental and leasing company in Germany. The acquisition is subject to German regulatory approval.
TCH is headquartered in Dieburg near Frankfurt and has ten operating locations located throughout Germany. The company has a fleet of 1 200 trucks and 1 800 trailers servicing approximately 3 000 customers and has an outstanding reputation throughout Germany for providing industry leading products and services to its customers.
An indication of TCH's market reach can be gauged by its strong presence at the bi-annual Hannover Truck Show where every time
FleetWatch has visited the show, not only have we seen the company showing its products and services from its own exhibition stand but its trailers and truck tractors can be seen on many other exhibits via companies which have hired them from TCH. In other words, it has an extremely strong presence in the market
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At Hannover:
A TCH Scania 'truck carrier' hauling MAN and Iveco models shows the diversity of truck makes and models in the TCH stable. Will this stay under the new deal or is it going to be DAF, DAF and more DAF? |
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What FleetWatch finds interesting about this deal is that whereas in the past the market has been awash with news of mergers, acquisitions, technology agreements and alliances between truck manufacturers, this is the first we've heard of a division of a truck manufacturer group buying what is, in effect, a truck 'operating' company.
PFS is part of the Paccar group which markets vehicles under the Kenworth, Peterbilt and DAF nameplates. Paccar also provides financial services, information technology and aftermarket support for its customers worldwide.
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| And here it is!
Paccar's European star which Paccar's senior vice president Ken Gangl, expects to shine even brighter under the Paccar/TCH deal. You have to be naïve to think that if TCH places, say, an order for 100 new truck tractors, that the order won't go into DAF's drawer under the new Paccar Financial Services ownership. That's why
FleetWatch feels this isn't a healthy development for the trucking industry in general. Or maybe we've got it all wrong. Correct us if we have. |
The press release issued by Paccar makes quite a hoo-hah of how the TCH deal is going to benefit DAF - obviously because TCH is a German company and Kenworth and Peterbilt are not sold into Europe. However, it is interesting to note that TCH has, up to now, been a customer for all other vehicle makes such as Mercedes-Benz, MAN, Renault, Scania, Iveco and others.
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Will the new
Paccar Financial Services-owned TCH welcome the promotion of opposition products such as was done via TCH's past sponsorship of this MAN 18.423 FT Race Truck in which Fritz Kreutzpointer won the European championships in 1999. In that year, Kreutzpointer outstripped the competition to such an extent that with four races to go in the series of 44 races, he had already won the title. And here's the crunch: He scored 558 points compared to the second man, Frenchman Alain Ferte in - you guessed it - a DAF who had 372 points. Ouch! |
Judging by the press statement, Ken Gangl, PACCAR senior vice president, sees only DAF ahead. "PACCAR's acquisition of TCH will enable PFS to continue to profitably expand its financing and leasing of DAF products," he is quoted as saying. The release also points out that in 2006, PACCAR Financial Europe (PFE) celebrated its fifth anniversary of supporting the sale of DAF products with growth to over $2-billion in assets and record profits. It all leans DAF's way.
Perhaps it wasn't meant to come across as such but judging by the enthusiastic pushing of DAF products and services in the press release, one wonders whether, under the new owners, TCH will be allowed to buy any other truck makes or models or whether the new owners will push for DAF as being the vehicle of choice. If so, it is great for DAF which last year reached new records in terms of sales, profit and production expanding its market share to a new high of 14.5 percent in Europe. But is it great for the market and for the customers? DAF's aim, by the way, is to reach 20% market share.
Perhaps FleetWatch is missing something here but if this is the start of a trend, we're not sure it's a healthy one. The impact of overseas happenings does, as we have seen over the past, have ripple effects in other parts of the world and if major manufacturers are going to start buying up their customers to gain market share, that could well change the whole dynamics of trucking. I have set out the accompanying photographs to illustrate some of the concerns that arise out of a deal like this.
So, while the Paccar and TCH management are no doubt celebrating the new deal, we're going to keep the champagne on ice for the time being as we wouldn't like to see such deals going down in South Africa. Picture the headline: Mercedes-Benz buys Unitrans....Mmmmm! Although one could argue that Commercial Vehicle Holdings, which represents International, DAF and Renault in this country, bought its customers by being part of the Imperial stable. Mmmmm! Let the debate go on......
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| This one won't
cause any problems for TCH's new owners. It's a Peterbilt, one of Paccar's stable products. Now what if, under the new deal, TCH wanted to trade this in on a Freightliner? Love to be a fly on the wall when that discussion takes place. |
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