The sharp cyclic slump in the economy and truck sales around the globe is unprecedented, but Martin Daum, the new top executive at Daimler Trucks North America, says manufacturers should be prepared for cycles.

""If you freeze to death in the winter because you are in shorts, is it the problem of the winter, or is it because of you?" he asked in an interview during the American Trucking Associations' annual meeting in Last Vegas

this week.

it looks like we've hit the bottom, at least in North America. Daimler Trucks believes its Global Excellence Program it started three years ago is helping to navigate the rocky waters - and in fact the company has gained market share in many areas.

That was the message of Daimler Trucks executives during a press briefing.

"As you know, our truck business overall runs always through cycles," said Andreas Renschler, head of Daimler Trucks. "But of course this cycle, we have never seen before." For the first time, he said, all the regions Daimler Trucks serves are in the same boat, with truck sales down 40 to 60 percent - the NAFTA division, Western Europe, and Japan.

"The weakness of this market is of course reflected in our financial results," Renschler said. "No company has been immune to the effect, including ourselves." The company has sold 162,900 trucks through August of 2009, compared to more than 311,000 in 2008. The good news, he says, is that cash flow for the company has still been positive, and the NAFTA market looks as though it has bottomed out. There are also signs of life in Asia, he said.

In addition, Daimler Trucks has gained market share around the world. In the NAFTA region, he said, as of July 2009, Daimler had a 31.9 percent market share for Class 8, up 1.4 points from last year.

Having a plan in place to manage the cyclical nature of the truck business "ensures fast and decisive action in changing markets," said Martin Daum, the new top executive for Daimler Trucks North America. "We're down 70 percent from 2006 levels. There are few companies that can survive such a breakdown in revenues. Yet we accomplished it. The low point in employee numbers was reached in June 2009, and in August we were able to rehire some people; we introduced a second shift in our Mexican plant."

The company also reversed its decision to close its Portland, Ore. plant, thanks in part to additional military orders. That was a tough decision, Daum said; there were many valid arguments for and against closing the plant. The extra military order was very important he said. "Also, I hate to spend money in paying people to leave the company. I'd rather pay them to move on to new products."

But even while Daimler Trucks North America has been working to match its capacity to demand and take all possible waste out of its system, Daum said, it's vital to continue to pay attention to the product quality. "Cost is a very important factor, but revenue is what counts - and you can only get superior revenue with a superior product."

The event was the first official press function for Daum, who also spoke about his first 100 days on the job.

"The first thing you do is figure out how much money you have to work with - and the answer is, not a lot - and what is expected of me - the answer was, a lot," Daum says. He spent a lot of time working with his management team, which he praised highly, to get a feeling for the challenges the company was facing.

Even more important, Daum says, was the first month, he started going out to meet with customers. "One thing I've learned in my 20 years at Daimler is that the customer is the guy who matters in the end. It's not whether the engineer or the marketing guy thinks the truck is great that's important."

Read a more extensive interview with Martin Daum in the November issue of Heavy Duty Trucking magazine.