Bob Rosadini Posted August 3, 2021 Share Posted August 3, 2021 Yesterday's WSJ has an article entitled..."Ford Taps Utility Man to Shape Vehicles". Lead off sentence....."Ford Motor Co. known for its brawny work trucks, is aiming to remake its commercial vehicle business into a tech-driven ecosystem of services capable of generating tens of billions in fresh revenue. Well a "brawny work truck" to me is an LTS- 9000 Louisville with at least a 66,000 lb GVW, but I guess the new Ford thinks of an F 350 with a 10,000 lb GVW as a "brawny work truck". In any case, Kannis has been appointed as CEO of Ford Pro which will be a stand-alone unit charged with building Ford's commercial truck business. The article goes on to say an objective will be to increase commercial revenue two thirds by 2025 to $45 billion. And as I read it, it has less to do with offering a broader commercial product mix but rather will focus on internet connections and digital services- its all "software". Kannis I guess has been appointed to this role largely because of his success as the guy responsible for the Mach E Mustang. Pretty good huh for a guy with a degree in philosophy? Lets hope we see some aggressive moves in commercial trucks and in particular class 6 and 7. And to those who say class 7 is dead at Ford, I think there are a lot of class 7 Fords being built with the right specs but customers are opting for the "derate"option to avoid hiring a CDL driver. They will take their chances and pay the occasional overweight fine. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kyle Posted August 3, 2021 Share Posted August 3, 2021 (edited) It is an aggressive growth plan that I think they will find challenging for a few reasons. Most of these fleets already have existing tech platforms in place and switching over to one from the OEM will be uphill battle. I worked at Navistar a few years ago and was on a road to nowhere project positioning factory electronic logging devices at carriers and it was a disaster...hence "I worked at:)" These companies run on very tight margins and hate spending any extra money unless it has a upside on ROI but if they pull this off the profit margins for Ford are very strong. Make a lot more money in software than selling anything with metal:) Edited August 4, 2021 by kyle 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Rosadini Posted August 4, 2021 Author Share Posted August 4, 2021 5 hours ago, kyle said: It is an aggressive growth plan that I think they will find challenging for a few reasons. Most of these fleets already have existing tech platforms in place and switching over to one from the OEM will be uphill battle. I worked at Navistar a few years ago and was on a road to no where project positioning factory electronic logging devices at carriers and it was a disaster...hence "I worked at:)" These companies run on very tight margins and hate spending any extra money unless it has a upside on ROI but if they pull this off the profit margins for Ford are very strong. Make a lot more money in software than selling anything with metal:) I hear you on the existing platforms that a lot of fleets use. I would imagine as so many of the existing Ford customers are small fleets-less than five trucks?- these guys probably don't have any degree of automation (telematics??) in place so maybe that is what Ford is thinking? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akirby Posted August 4, 2021 Share Posted August 4, 2021 10 hours ago, Bob Rosadini said: I hear you on the existing platforms that a lot of fleets use. I would imagine as so many of the existing Ford customers are small fleets-less than five trucks?- these guys probably don't have any degree of automation (telematics??) in place so maybe that is what Ford is thinking? They’re probably targeting smaller fleets without systems first, but I think over time they hope larger fleets will switch to the Ford system since the hardware is built in at no extra cost so theoretically it would be cheaper. But that does lock them into Ford which some won’t do, but for the ones who do it’s a win/win for Ford. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Rosadini Posted August 4, 2021 Author Share Posted August 4, 2021 8 hours ago, akirby said: They’re probably targeting smaller fleets without systems first, but I think over time they hope larger fleets will switch to the Ford system since the hardware is built in at no extra cost so theoretically it would be cheaper. But that does lock them into Ford which some won’t do, but for the ones who do it’s a win/win for Ford. Agree on the "Lock in" comment. Key is IMO-just what does it offer? I imagine the basics" Speed recording? Idle recording? Over reving?? service intervals? requires someone to enter that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akirby Posted August 4, 2021 Share Posted August 4, 2021 2 hours ago, Bob Rosadini said: Agree on the "Lock in" comment. Key is IMO-just what does it offer? I imagine the basics" Speed recording? Idle recording? Over reving?? service intervals? requires someone to enter that? It could provide more than a normal old-II plug in - location, fuel level, tire pressure, error codes, speed, mileage, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7Mary3 Posted August 6, 2021 Share Posted August 6, 2021 On 8/3/2021 at 1:55 PM, kyle said: It is an aggressive growth plan that I think they will find challenging for a few reasons. Most of these fleets already have existing tech platforms in place and switching over to one from the OEM will be uphill battle. I worked at Navistar a few years ago and was on a road to nowhere project positioning factory electronic logging devices at carriers and it was a disaster...hence "I worked at:)" These companies run on very tight margins and hate spending any extra money unless it has a upside on ROI but if they pull this off the profit margins for Ford are very strong. Make a lot more money in software than selling anything with metal:) Man you got it. From my perspective, Ford's fleet management platforms sound very nice but are likely going to be exclusive to Ford vehicles. Unless the system is compatible with aftermarket platforms (I'll bet it ain't!) I can't see medium and large fleets being all that interested as it commits you to buying Fords. No sale! My employer already has a very comprehensive vehicle management system in place and it has effectively grown with us and met our changing needs over time. Installation into the vehicle is very simple and inexpensive. The information is there in any OBD II vehicle and many have GPS as well. I find it a bit distressing as while it may prove to be a worthwhile endeavor for Ford, it does seem to be taking the emphasis off the actual vehicles. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Rosadini Posted August 7, 2021 Author Share Posted August 7, 2021 Again, assuming Ford does nothing beyond class 7, when you look at typical current Ford customers-small vocational fleets- with exception of maybe one like U-haul or DHL for Transits I think this is more hype than anything else. Perhaps Cannis IS a marketing genius (he is not an engineer) sounds to me like I said-just hype. What is interesting to me is one of our frequent posters, a Ford annuitant, I do believe has frequently said a commercial truck assignment was pretty much the end of the line. Let's hope this guy IS a super star. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbone Posted August 7, 2021 Share Posted August 7, 2021 12 hours ago, Bob Rosadini said: Again, assuming Ford does nothing beyond class 7, when you look at typical current Ford customers-small vocational fleets- with exception of maybe one like U-haul or DHL for Transits I think this is more hype than anything else. Perhaps Cannis IS a marketing genius (he is not an engineer) sounds to me like I said-just hype. What is interesting to me is one of our frequent posters, a Ford annuitant, I do believe has frequently said a commercial truck assignment was pretty much the end of the line. Let's hope this guy IS a super star. Perhaps they are looking to change that considering this guy’s last assignment was the Mach E. Let’s hope so. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Rosadini Posted August 7, 2021 Author Share Posted August 7, 2021 1 hour ago, tbone said: Perhaps they are looking to change that considering this guy’s last assignment was the Mach E. Let’s hope so. Yes- one of my sons drove a Mach E and was very impressed. It had a sticker of around 50 and my comment to him was .."Well did it impress you as a luxury car"? and his answer was "absolutely". 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rperez817 Posted August 7, 2021 Share Posted August 7, 2021 13 hours ago, Bob Rosadini said: Let's hope this guy IS a super star. 1 hour ago, tbone said: Perhaps they are looking to change that considering this guy’s last assignment was the Mach E. Let’s hope so. Sounds like Mr. Cannis has the potential to be a super star. Ford Pro is a great opportunity to combine the 3 biggest things for the ongoing revolution in the automotive industry. Electric vehicles, autonomous vehicles, and mobility services. Done right, Ford can not only survive but thrive amid this revolution now and in the future. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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