Daimler Truck Financial Launches Trucking Industry's First-Ever Dealer Training for Finance and Insurance Products

Overwhelming response to online training and webinars precedes live training in Fort Worth and Charlotte, N.C.

FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich., Aug. 3 -- Daimler Truck Financial is providing heavy and medium duty truck dealers with something they've never had before -- a comprehensive training program in the art of selling finance and insurance products to their qualified customers.

Daimler Truck Financial launched the industry's first ever Finance & Insurance Academy earlier this year, encouraging dealer principals to have their sales managers, sales staff and F&I staffs register for free online courses and webinars.

The results have been encouraging as more than 700 sales and F&I people working in dealerships selling Freightliners and Western Stars manufactured by Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA) have logged over 1900 hours in the online course offerings. In two webinars offered in May and June, over 450 people participated in a session that had the bandwidth for 300 people.

"The single, most important goal of this initiative is to help dealers and their teams prepare for a more profitable future," said Richard Howard, Vice President of Daimler Truck Financial. "At a time when most OEMs' financial partners are taking cover and reducing investments, Daimler Truck Financial is proactively investing in training tools to help our dealers, thus increasing our value proposition."

Starting today in Charlotte, N.C., Daimler Truck Financial is conducting three days of live training for dealership personnel who have completed the online training and attended the webinars. The same training will be offered starting next Monday in Fort Worth, Texas.

To further validate the strength and relevance of the training program, dealers are paying out of pocket for the live instruction training, in addition to their travel and lodgings. The result: the class registration is at capacity levels in both cities.

"We have underwritten the development and launch costs of the overall program, but we are asking the dealers to help pay for the classroom training and for their travel," said James Molski, Dealer Training Manager for Daimler Truck Financial and co-creator of the program. "While there is some cost to them, dealers know that after their people complete this training, gain a new level of confidence and close their first deal, it will pay for their investment."

Dave Wirth, Director of Finance & Insurance at ATC Freightliner in Dallas, serves as the F&I Dealer Council President for Daimler Truck Financial dealer customers. He has counseled Daimler Truck Financial in the development of the training on what is and what is not needed for relevant dealer training.

"The benefit of this training for larger stores is that it eliminates the gap between the front-end sales and the back-end close," Wirth said. "We need that education and training on the front end so that they are more comfortable with the turn over to the back end. For the smaller stores that do not have a specialized F&I person on site, it enables the sales staff to have the product knowledge and the financing knowledge so they can provide turn-key service start to finish."

Wirth manages the F&I departments at five ATC Freightliner locations in North Texas and Oklahoma. He has participated on the Daimler Truck Financial F&I Council for five years. The 20-member F&I council meets twice a year in person and several more times a year via conference calls. He said Daimler Truck Financial's F&I Council and their initiative to provide F&I training is unique in the industry among captive finance companies.

"Daimler Truck Financial is the only captive out there that is actively and aggressively taking their dealer group into the 21st century," Wirth said. "Dealerships participating in the training will see some improvement in just a few weeks. The energy level and the focus of the participants is there."

Wirth said he led F&I training for the ATC dealerships several years ago and saw revenue generated by the F&I departments rise over 300 percent after 12 months.

While today is the travel day for the attendees attending the training course, those arriving early will be meeting with executives of Daimler Trucks North America and Daimler Truck Financial in their new facility in Fort Mill, S.C. in an executive round table discussion of the industry. Next week, the executive round table will be held at Daimler Truck Financial's new business center in Fort Worth.

About Daimler Truck Financial

Daimler Truck Financial, a business unit of Daimler Financial Services (DCFS USA LLC), provides wholesale financing and credit lines to Freightliner, Western Star, and Thomas Built Bus dealers. Daimler Truck Financial offers a broad range of flexible financing plans for fleet customers, owner/operators, municipal and vocational customers as well as an extensive selection of dealer financial services that fully support Daimler Trucks North America's commercial vehicle brands throughout North America.