Kenworth KICKS ON… AND ON!
Despite all the hassles and hardships, Paccar Australia’s performance in 2021 is shaping up to be nothing short of outstanding. A sublimely remarkable achievement in a time of immensely uncommon challenges.
The numbers speak for themselves, and none speak louder than Kenworth’s. For the year up to the end of September, the market’s premier brand had delivered 1,972 units, equating to 21.7% of the heavy-duty sector. Its nearest rival was Volvo, more than 800 trucks behind on 12.9%.
In effect, Kenworth at the end of the third quarter of 2021 was probably just weeks away from easily surpassing its 2020 full-year performance, which saw 2,114 new Kenworths roll out of the Bayswater (Vic) production plant. Indeed, Kenworth is, this year, comfortably on track to deliver around 2,500 trucks.
Meanwhile, corporate counterpart DAF has been also on an upward trajectory. After notching respectable numbers in 2020, DAF, at the end of September this year, was just a gnat’s knuckle away from cracking the 500-units mark for the first time in the brand’s Australian history.
Still, 2020’s numbers certainly weren’t modest or meagre, retaining Kenworth’s and Paccar Australia’s heavy-duty market leadership despite gruelling difficulties as Covid-19 first raised its ugly head and took hold; at one point forcing the company’s US parent to decree a month-long shutdown of all Paccar plants. The shutdown was, however, a wise move, designed to give local Paccar executives time to devise entirely new safety protocols for work routines at every level of the company structure.
It wasn’t an easy time, though. Not by a long shot. In an exclusive interview at the end of last year, Paccar Australia managing director Andrew Hadjikakou defined
