In this week’s episode we cover MEMA’s recent, far-reaching Pulse webinar, which covered its supplier barometer, survey data from MacKay & Company about the value of ‘Made in the USA’ parts and a panel discussion with industry sales pros about how price, quality and country of origin can impact fleet purchasing. We also touch on President Trump’s visit to Mack Trucks, J.D. Power’s used truck market update for May and First Brands’ founder and ex-CEO Patrick James being let out of house arrest. We conclude with my caution about zero-emission deployment stats and tease our annual award programs.
Lucas: Hi everyone. Lucas here for today’s TPS Weekly News Roundup. Today I’m going to begin with Wednesday’s MEMA Aftermarket Suppliers’ Pulse webinar. Ton of stuff packed into that hour.
Philip Atkins from MEMA presented the Q1 supplier barometer noting that suppliers view Q1 as being better than Q4, better than all of 2025 and there’s optimism for 2026, so some good news there from MEMA’s members.
Also Travis Kokenes from MacKay & Company released the results of a ‘Made in America’ or ‘Made in the USA’ parts study that MacKay did with fleets, dealers and distributors. Some interesting insight there on how much people really value production, country of origin sourcing, how it impacts purchasing, how it doesn’t impact purchasing, where it impacts purchasing. You can see some of Travis’ comments there [in the MEMA story]. There was also a panel during Wednesday’s webinar. Walt Frankiewicz, longtime leader at Haldex [moderated the panel] with a couple of sales experts in the aftermarket talking about country of origin, talking about sourcing, does it really matter to fleets, does it really matter to customers? [The panelists] also talking about the difference between economy or value line, private label products and OE genuine products and if there’s been any changes in perceptions of those different product categories over the last couple years. So, some good insights there. Check that out. That story is online.
Also we had a story, President Trump visited the Mack production facility in Pennsylvania earlier this week, touting domestic manufacturing, touting the importance of American manufacturing, saying he wants all Class 8 trucks to be American made, defending his 25% tariff for medium- and heavy-duty trucks that are produced outside of the United States. Also talked about Iran, talked about fuel prices, some other stuff. Check that story out if you didn’t get the chance to see it.
J.D. Power’s most recent used truck market update came out late last week. I think it was Friday. We had the story on Monday. Some interesting insights there from J.D. Power. The [used truck] market slipped a little bit in May compared to what we saw in maybe March and April. Still very strong. The market still definitely turned a corner from the low spot we were in maybe in 2025 — or 2021 into 2025. But there was a little bit of a price shake up [in May]. Auction, retail pricing was down. Wholesale was up a little bit. So, you can check that out, learn more about the used truck market from J.D. Power.
A couple last minute things. First Brands’ ex- CEO and founder Patrick James was released from house arrest this week. His criminals trial’s still ongoing, but now he has the ability to move around.
Calstart released an update on zero-emission truck deployment last week saying that there’s 72,000 zero emission trucks deployed across the United States. I kind of dug into that number. What does that actually mean? About 89% of them are cargo vans. Only 2,500 heavy-duty trucks on the road. But I kind of looked into what’s going to be necessary if electric really ever makes a foothold in North America and in the United States. How’s it going to get there? What are the barriers we’re up against? Why is it working in cargo van that it’s not working in heavy duty? The answer is infrastructure, you know, but just a little bit more data about how we get there and just how you can really evaluate zero-emission data when you see it, because sometimes it can be a bit misleading. So, check that out.
Then lastly, four days left to nominate a business for the Distributor of the Year award. You can find that link on our website. Please go ahead and do that.
We’ll be announcing the finalists for that program in a couple weeks as well as our two dealer programs, Successful Dealer Award and Trailblazer. So keep an eye out for those announcements and those wonderful dealers and distributors who will be nominated and recognized. Have a great upcoming holiday. Have a great weekend and we will see you next week. Thanks everybody. Bye.
