Tim and Gene recently returned from the Great Dane Sales meeting held at the Marriott Sawgrass in Ponte Vedre. The event theme was “Drive Away with More.” It focused on the value of Great Dane trailers over the competition and highlighted the new standards being implemented on trailers ordered after the first of the year. According to Gene, “Great Dane laid out some strategic long term goals that will help make them an even larger player in the market place.”
Great Dane unveiled a lightweight dry freight trailer that will be competitive with all the current light weight dry vans in the market place coming in at 12,100lbs. Currently they are in development of a 10,000 dry van in collaboration with a large Great Dane account that will send shock waves throughout the industry.
Atlantic Great Dane also had a US Foods trailer at the show that unveiled new solutions to side door unloading practices. More importantly, it was equipped with the new extended mainbeam design that evolved out of meetings held between US Foods, Atlantic Great Dane, and Great Dane. It was developed to meet the weight reduction needs of US Foods and will save anywhere from 300-600lbs depending on the amount of extension required. This will become the new standard on all Great Dane trailers equipped with side doors ahead of the landing gear.
All in all, both Tim and Gene came back feeling positive that Great Dane is on the right track keeping customer focus high on the priority list and developing products that our customers need to be successful in their business.