Daimler Truck Financial has received the highest ranking in the annual dealer satisfaction survey conducted by the American Truck Dealers (ATD), a division of the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA).


Last year, the top spot went to Paccar Finance, which supports dealers selling Kenworth and Peterbilt brands. The two have been taking turns at the top, with Daimler ranking first in 2004, '05, '07 and '09 while Paccar won in 2006 and '08.

"Our dealers recognized the substantial efforts that our employees are making each and every day to support our dealers' business," said Richard Howard, head of Daimler Truck Financial. "Our score and ranking is especially significant given the environment we are operating in today and the considerable changes our employees had to go through the last two years."

The annual ATD survey is mailed to medium- and heavy-duty new truck dealers in the U.S. Dealers evaluate their OEM in the following categories: Value, Marketing, Policy Parts, People and Finance.

Within the finance category, dealers rank their satisfaction with their finance partner in terms of the range of products available to dealers; the range of products available to customers; competitive programs relative to rates and terms for new and used vehicles; timeliness of response from the captive; quality of sales and marketing staff assistance when needed; and the availability of capital at competitive rates to the dealer-owned leasing company.

"We will continue to be proactive with our dealers in working closely with them and listening carefully to their concerns to ensure that we are constantly developing new initiatives and trying to enhance current offerings," Howard said.

Other OEM captive finance firms rated by dealers in the ATD survey are: Mack Commercial, Volvo Financial, Ford Motor Credit, International Finance and GMAC.