BERING Truck Corporation announced its plans to capture market share in the western United States with the opening of a dealership in West Valley City, Utah. “Bering is adding more dealers as well as increasing our market share with the efforts of the dealers that we currently have, and we will be introducing a new truck this year — the MD-33,” said Dick Frisbie, director of sales and marketing for Bering Truck Corporation. Frisbie's comments were made after the Bering NTEA product seminar presented by Alen Stegich, national training manager of Bering Truck Corporation. During Stegich's presentation, he outlined Bering's history and current company trends to the 37th annual NTEA convention and T-3 exhibition attendees.
According to Frisbie, this was possible because of the features provided by the Bering LD and MD Series product. “The LD features the Detroit Diesel 638 engine coupled to an Allison AT-542 automatic transmission, and the MD 23/MD26 with the Cummins ISB and ZF manual transmission have been very successful in capturing Class 4 and Class 6 market share, and in helping us to attract new dealers to the company.”
Frisbie said that although Bering has historically been focused on the Eastern Seaboard as its initial beachhead, company management now feels that the time is right to start a westward expansion. “Our first dealer west of the Mississippi, Bering Trucks of Utah, is located in West Valley City, Utah.
“We're excited about the location because it reaches into the middle of the western territory that we want to develop,” said Frisbie. “This also fits our overall goal of increasing our dealer network to 130 dealers strategically located across the country.” According to a survey by the American Truck Dealers Association, dealers rate Bering as the second most valuable dealer of choice, Frisbie said.
“The Utah dealer also procured our first large-scale sale to a body building company, Vortex Engineering,” said Frisbie. Vortex is a builder of home and light commercial carpet cleaning trucks. Frisbee says Bering will deliver in excess of 50 Class 4 trucks to Vortex over twelve months.
Heavy Medium-Duty Product
“Today we are bringing out our MD-33 to fit the Class-7 truck buyer's needs. This truck is a natural progression for Bering in developing our full product line,” said Frisbie. “The MD-23 and MD-26, both non-CDL trucks, have been great products for the company. Nevertheless, we want to continue our growth of the product line and our abilities to serve our customers. The introduction of the MD-33 provides us with that opportunity.”
According to Frisbie, the MD-33 will be introduced as a 2002 Model Year Bering. The MD-33 will be equipped with Caterpillar's model 3126 engines. “The Caterpillar 3126 has proven to be a tested and strong engine for the Class-7 application,” Frisbie said. “However, we would look at other possible engines for the truck, such as the Cummins ISC. That would provide us with a wet-sleeved engine that is popular in some applications.”
The truck will be offered with several transmission packages, including Allison series automatics and the Eaton-Fuller manual transmission.
A Heavy Mix
Frisbie also said that the sales of the Class-8 mixer product were strong. “Equipping it with the Caterpillar C-12 engine and Eaton-Fuller 11-speed transmission has proven to be a strong selling combination.”
Bering combines the chassis with a Sauer-Sundstrand Transit Mixer system. “This technologically advanced system virtually eliminates mechanical cables,” said Frisbie. “The system can produce a constant 1 rpm drum rotation speed at any engine rpm or pump displacement settings. That's an inviting quality for a ready-mix operator that delivers or operates the equipment in large urban areas that are heavily congested.”
Bering Truck Corporation is located in Fort Royal, Virginia. Their strategic partner is Hyundai Motor Company located in Chunju, South Korea. Hyundai Motor Company recently announced that the truck manufacturing operation has been split off as a separate division from the consumer retail-vehicle operation.