Who Makes America's Semi-Trucks

Trucks play an integral role in American business and life. About 39 million registered trucks move nearly three-quarters of all freight by weight, grossing about $875 billion in revenue. Four manufacturers dominate the market, but Daimler Trucks, holds about 40% of the total market share largely because of its Freightliner brand. These companies are mass producers of custom vehicles. Freightliner’s paint catalog, for example, has more than 3,000 shades of the color white. But the business is changing, as upstarts boldly promise to deliver electric semitrucks and autonomous driving systems. But some industry analysts say that currently there is not a clear business model for a lot of these innovations.

Produced by: Robert Ferris
Edited By: Dain Evans
Camera: Magdalena Petrova, Darren Geeter
Senior Managing Producer: Tala Hadavi
Graphics: Christina Locopo, Jason Reginato, Alex Wood

About CNBC: From 'Wall Street' to 'Main Street' to award winning original documentaries and Reality TV series, CNBC has you covered. Experience special sneak peeks of your favorite shows, exclusive video and more.

Connect with CNBC News Online

#CNBC

Who Makes America's Semi-Trucks

[rmodjeski]

Makes me happy seeing the trucking industry get more of a public spotlight. As opposed to those of us who actually drive on a daily basis knowing all the ins and outs, now the general public has a snapshot of the industry. No matter how it goes, if you bought it, a truck bought it. Yes even the water you drink had a truck involved at some point, delivering the materials to purify and soften it.

[arthurbrumagem]

Freight liner holds a larger share of the semi market because they are usually much cheaper and fleet owners buy them as a result

[Switchphase]

Check out Edison Motors in Alberta Canada. They have an interim solution with a diesel - electric build. Works similar to a locomotive. Runs the diesel engine as needed in the optimal power band to charge onboard batteries, which drive electric motors at the wheels. Uses regenerative braking just like current hybrid and electric vehicles. No charging stations needed. Uses less diesel per mile.

[steven]

As a retired UAW worker I was surprised by the lack of robots. I don't know how good the Tesla semis will be, but I bet their factory will have a lot of robots. I am not a fan of robots but I know if you don't have them and the other guy does, you're out of business.

[ReidCoffman]

I finally decided to do the responsible thing and buy in at the end of 2022, right at the peak of the market and only in "safe" index funds. Now I'm down 20% for the year. It's nice to get immediately punished for doing what you're supposed to be doing. I'm staying in it, and dollar cost averaging at a low level, but this is still painful. where can we put our invstmnt money outside of the financial market, I have $45, 000 left?

[CooterELee]

What a nice story where we can all be proud of this American made Freightliner! It’s funny how the Freightliner i own says Hecho in Mexico on every single part but don’t let that get in the way of the narrative

[RiVer-Parish]

Truck Drivers:" We demand raises!!!" Truck Carriers:"You want a Beer?"

[lamara]

Where did they get the $150, 000 price for a truck from. How about that's a used price. Every damn new truck I've come across was definitely above 200k on the cheap end.

[Punisher]

i drove solo for C.R England in 2017 and my truck was a 2016 Freightliner. it was a good truck, the only thing that sucked about it was it was very bare bones. didnt have a fridge or a proper power inverter set up in it so living out of it for 6 months straight was tough.

[clintfletcher]

With the current problem around the world today I think it's best everyone invest more in digital asset than Saving in banks, anyone you can manage don't live a life with no investment . Just my thoughts

[thetrainhopper]

Fun thing about battery electrics is that it only takes about 12 superchargers before you start getting into the neighborhood of “being able to power light rail”. I can’t imagine trucking being worth going battery electric given the grid capacity. Since trucks are bigger and will need larger capacity, there will come a point where putting wires over the railways would be the cheaper option. Hell even putting wires over the highways would be cheaper.

[jefferyhubbard]

We had rolling brown outs in Tennessee last week due to cold weather. If the power grid is not expanded we all can except this as a norm in the future.

[EdHayes]

At 9:43, voiceover says < 300 miles, but video shows >300 miles.

[gabrielmorales]

I got to say that the day people feel comfortable flying in a plane with no pilots at all then people could think of full autonomous trucks. there is always the need of a human supervising everything

[tesseractcreativelab]

Good to note that electric semis have a weight limit of 82, 000 lbs (+2k over traditional). Not a massive difference, but worth knowing when running numbers.

[ronnestman]

I am employed within DTNA and it is a wonderful place to work. They are really good people.

[guilhermetavares]

It is interesting how the American market for trucks is completely different from the Brazilian market. Here we only have European manufacturers like DAF, Scania, Mercedes and Volkswagen. The only company in the video that has operations here is Volvo.

[caarloosppp]

Flagship factory ? Cleveland? The Freightliner plant that produces the most Cascadia semi trucks it’s located in Mexico… specifically the Saltillo plant

[LetstalkDIESEL]

Finally a video talking about this industry, as a Diesel technician, I have to say that Freightliner still a well and reliable know truck but sadly other companies are catching up slowly, let’s take Volvo for example, in a decade Volvo has made a name in this industry with their trucks, Volvo trucks unlike Freightliner are more comfortable to drive and have a better technology inside the cabin, even few owner operators think Freightliner is falling behind them. Let’s hope this industry keeps evolving and about electric trucks we are still in a long way to get a 1000 miles range, but eventually when batteries technology moves even faster it is now, we will start to see more electric over the road.

[retrogamer]

I'm Jewish. I got into the used car business in 1980s. I've made more on used cars in the last 2 years than the rest of my career put together. I am selling my dealerships and retiring. Crazy how much chumps would pay for cars during the pandemic.