During the Heavy Duty Aftermarket Dialogue portion of Heavy Duty Aftermarket Week, panelists discussed several ongoing challenges facing the transportation industry, from the ongoing freight recession to parts availability and delivery speed, and ultimately how to move beyond transactional supplier relationships. In his OEM Perspective address, Drew Backeberg, SVP of the Aftermarket of Daimler Truck North America, touched on many of these themes again and noted how DTNA is grappling with them.
“We recognize that the current market is incredibly dynamic and challenging right now,” Backeberg said. “The culprit is pretty obvious. Despite the relatively healthy economy, our customers are experiencing the longest freight recession in memory."
According to Backeberg, freight softness, overcapacitization, higher borrowing costs, price inflation, and general uncertainty, have all created a "wait-and-see" attitude across the market. And keeping the economy moving while the industry wades through that uncertainty means addressing its root causes and adapting to them where possible.
Causes of market uncertainty
Backeberg noted a few of the elements that were causing the most uncertainty for the transportation industry right now, including: tariffs, emissions regulations, new truck market headwinds, and supplier expectations.
The first of these, tariffs, is unusual, he said, “because unlike other regulatory measures, tariffs don't impact all OEMs and all suppliers equally."
He said could vary by production footprint, component, and country of origin.
To cope with this, the executive said that DTNA was working with suppliers to understand the upstream impacts from tariffs, and then “responsibly” pass uncovered costs on to the market while staying competitive. Backeberg also said that the company was pairing this work with “resilience measures” that included on-shoring and nearshoring practices, saying that businesses that did not adapt now were going to be left behind.
And while “that dust has mostly settled” in regards to emissions regulations, big changes are on the way with the upcoming EPA 27 regulations that require new trucks to have cleaner engines and aftertreatment systems.
“We now have a pretty clear picture of what the rules will be for the future ahead,” he said. “And I would say at this point, what's really important is how we navigate these changes for our customers, but also as an industry, regardless of policy cadence, [that] our stance as an OEM is firm.”
This stance includes playing the powertrain field and providing plenty of options, from electrified vehicles and buses to stocking charging service parts and remanufacturing batteries and e-drive components. Backeberg also took a moment to shout out DTNA’s partnership with Greenlane and their charging network, while also highlighting that the company would continue to develop their ICE technology “for the foreseeable future.”
Finally, Backeberg said that one of the reasons for uncertainty in the trucking industry was the new truck market. But in this instance, he emphasized how weakness in the new truck market was creating opportunity for the aftermarket “to serve as the constant amongst all of the other variability.”
In particular, Backberg explained that the freight recession was pushing fleets to stretch trade cycles and park vehicles, and, in some cases, defer maintenance and repairs as well.
“But they can't defy gravity for long, until they need to maintain the investment to keep those vehicles in operation on the road and generating revenue,” Backeberg said. “And hypothetically, even if new truck demand were to rebound, let's say this year, we believe that the industry wouldn't have the capacity to replace all of those deferred purchases, and therefore we expect parts and service demand to rise in the near future as a result of this dynamic.”
This is where the aftermarket could provide some stability, he explained, in terms of helping to provide the parts fleets need to keep trucks on the road. However, that opportunity could also come with greater expectations for the aftermarket, especially in a transportation environment that’s doing more with less income.
“Lately, we've seen a pretty noticeable change with what our customers are looking for,” Backeberg asserted. “As I mentioned earlier, they're scrutinizing every expense, and we're seeing a shift in their buying behavior from, let's say, premium genuine parts, to lower-cost-value products.”
For OEMs, the DTNA SVP said, this means that they need to adjust and refine their product offerings so that fleets have options across the value spectrum.
How DTNA is adjusting to demand
In response to this uncertainty, Backeberg emphasized DTNA’s greater reliance on e-commerce, digital services, and warranty offerings to meet fleet needs.
For the company’s e-commerce offerings, Backeberg lauded how the company’s online platform, first launched in 2020, has achieved $1 billion in annual parts sales. And he stated that it’s a channel that DTNA is looking to grow.
“This platform is a key enabler today, but we view it as a future channel of engagement, not just for parts, but also for services,” Backeberg said. “Going forward, e-commerce through Daimler Truck, will be a one-stop-shop across all retail opportunities.”
He also noted that DTNA is working on growing their digital services for vehicles by monetizing the data from their trucks. For example, Backeberg cited how Daimler Truck Financial Services and Geico launched insurance premium savings for using safety technology on Cascadia trucks.
Additionally, DTNA is responding to the dips in the new truck market by strengthening their warranty offers for second-life-use trucks.
“Second and third owners often rely on third-party warranty coverages as well as, let's say, lower-cost service alternatives, which limits our ability as an OEM to stay connected with them,” Backeberg stated. “By expanding our second-life warranty program specifically targeting that used truck market, we have an opportunity to engage these customers and to bring them back into our brand and into our dealer network.”
Taken together, Backeberg said that these efforts are building to making DTNA and their suppliers being stronger parnters in their services.
“This is a little bit cliché, but we're not looking for a stereotypical OEM-supplier relationship that’s more transactional in nature,” Backeberg said. “That means that it's a give and take, in that we are effectively arm-in-arm in our efforts to grow our mutual businesses.”
This is especially true since Backeberg said he didn’t anticipate that any shifts in the political climate in three years will have a large impact on the economic one.
“From my perspective, it's very difficult for the Treasury to walk away from [tariff] revenue,” Backeberg noted. “We are of the belief that these tariffs are going to be sticky, and so for us and our suppliers, we are pursuing nearshore and onshore opportunities so that we minimize those costs.”
But despite the prospect of ongoing economic strain, Backeberg ended his address on a positive, yet realistic note.
“I am positive with our outlook for calendar year 2026,” he concluded. “I don't know that the fundamentals of the economy necessarily change. So the demand side of the freight equation probably doesn't change very much, but having fewer trucks on the road is going to put our customers in a more healthy position, and I think that will create some optimism and drive both truck sales and aftermarket business in 26.”
About the Author
Alex Keenan
Alex Keenan is an Associate Editor for Fleet Maintenance magazine. She has written on a variety of topics for the past several years and recently joined the transportation industry, reviewing content covering technician challenges and breaking industry news. She holds a bachelor's degree in English from Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado.