PORTLAND, Ore. (April 1, 2005) — Chris Patterson, the 50-year-old Canadian who has been senior vice president for service and parts at Freightliner LLC for the past three years, will replace Rainer Schmueckle as head of the North American truck manufacturer on April 15. Formally, his title will be president and chief executive officer of Freightliner LLC and head of the NAFTA Trucks Business Unit (Freightliner, Sterling, Thomas Built Buses) within the Commercial Vehicles Division of DaimlerChrysler AG.

Schmueckle, 45, has been named chief operating officer of parent company DaimlerChrysler’s Mercedes Car Group in Stuttgart, Germany. He master-minded Freightliner’s dramatic turn-around from what he recently called “the dark days” of 2001-2002 when the company faced severe financial challenges. Many “tough decisions” later, Freightliner revenues reached US$12.4 billion last year, up from US$9.9 billion in 2003. It holds a 35 percent share of the North American class 8 truck market, its closest rival being International Truck & Engine at 19.6 percent.

“Last year was by far the most successful year in our history,” Schmueckle said during a press conference at the Mid-America Trucking Show on March 31. He noted that the Freightliner group represented 26 percent of DaimlerChrysler Commercial Vehicles worldwide revenue last year and 21 percent of its unit sales.

Patterson, the smart and much respected veteran who has held senior positions at Canadian Kenworth and Volvo Trucks North America as well as Freightliner in both Canada and the U.S., will be seen by some observers as a surprise successor to Schmueckle. While the German’s departure has been rumored for some time, it was not expected that a North American would take over the presidency at Freightliner.

“I am delighted and proud to have been a part of the team that led the revival of Freightliner between 2001 and 2003,” Patterson told Today’s Trucking. “The change in the company’s operations has been nothing short of miraculous, and it has only been possible because of the cohesiveness and resolve of the people I’ve been proud to share the board room with over the past three years. We are now solidly profitable, and the mission passed to me from Rainer is to take Freightliner from ‘good’ to ‘great’, as we face the challenges posed by the inevitable downturn in our market and the need to address ever-escalating demands of our customers.”

He notes that the plan for Freightliner LLC in 2005 calls for revenue to rise from US$12.4 to US$14 billion.

Patterson takes on the leadership of Freightliner under the shadow of personal tragedy. In February he and his wife, Tina, suffered the loss of their only child, 14-year-old Scott, to a congenital defect in a blood vessel near his heart.

“I intend to fully embrace this new opportunity,” Patterson told us, “as a way to remember our son, and to leave some mark behind in this world, since our primary legacy is now gone — secure employment for a fine, hardworking group of people, fine products and services to move the nation’s goods in an increasingly competitive global economy, and vehicles that tread lightly on the delicate planet we must preserve for our successors.”

Schmueckle is facing another significant challenge at Mercedes, which has seen falling profits and a drop in customer-satisfaction surveys in recent months. On March 31 it announced a recall of some 1.3 million Mercedes-Benz cars to repair braking and electrical faults. In a DaimlerChrysler press release, Schmueckle’s specific challenge is described as “the consistent implementation of measures designed to return the Mercedes Car Group to an operating margin of 7%.”