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Ahead of a meeting for Chevrolet and Buick/GMC dealers, Chevrolet’s global vice president Scott Bell and Keith McCluskey a Chevrolet dealer who is chairman of Chevrolet’s National Dealer Council spoke about the challenges facing the brand, and one of the main issues on the table is logistics.
“Our focus is on production and capacity and some of the shipping challenges we’ve had,” says Bell.
“So we need to work hard to straighten those up and get them more of what we have, and especially with these new products coming, that’s what they’re looking for.”
One way to improve getting completed vehicles to dealers and their customers is to control more of the shipping process.
McCluskey says that’s why GM is purchasing 400 heavy-duty trucks to deliver vehicles to dealers.
“GM stepped up and bought those assets.
And GM people on GM-owned vehicles are delivering our product to us,” said McCluskey
“It’s just part of GM being aggressive and figuring out:
We’re not going to sit back and just be a victim of the transportation industry.
We’re going to take charge of it.”
McCluskey says that GM executives told dealers on Saturday that the company expects to be nearly back to 100% of production capability this year.
This assessment by GM comes after nearly two years of being hamstrung by supply chain issues and the microchip shortage.
McCluskey says such a return “would be music to our ears.”
During the dealership meeting, GM said that nearly 500,000 vehicles had been built with missing parts and many were parked during that time awaiting those chip or other components to become available. Now that figure is only “about 1,000 vehicles” as of the end of January.
GM having 400 of its own trucks ready to move completed vehicles to dealers should help GM increase the available inventory back toward the 60 days’ supply that was considered optimal by the US automotive industry in its pre-pandemic days.
An example from back in May 2022 when 11,000 Chevy Silverado HD trucks that were finished and ready to ship had to be parked instead as there was no available transport at GM’s Oshaway plant.
“Bottom line is, the bad weather, the storm is behind us,” McCluskey said. “It’s a very bright future.”
“Our focus is on production and capacity and some of the shipping challenges we’ve had,” says Bell.
“So we need to work hard to straighten those up and get them more of what we have, and especially with these new products coming, that’s what they’re looking for.”
One way to improve getting completed vehicles to dealers and their customers is to control more of the shipping process.
McCluskey says that’s why GM is purchasing 400 heavy-duty trucks to deliver vehicles to dealers.
“GM stepped up and bought those assets.
And GM people on GM-owned vehicles are delivering our product to us,” said McCluskey
“It’s just part of GM being aggressive and figuring out:
We’re not going to sit back and just be a victim of the transportation industry.
We’re going to take charge of it.”
McCluskey says that GM executives told dealers on Saturday that the company expects to be nearly back to 100% of production capability this year.
This assessment by GM comes after nearly two years of being hamstrung by supply chain issues and the microchip shortage.
McCluskey says such a return “would be music to our ears.”
During the dealership meeting, GM said that nearly 500,000 vehicles had been built with missing parts and many were parked during that time awaiting those chip or other components to become available. Now that figure is only “about 1,000 vehicles” as of the end of January.
GM having 400 of its own trucks ready to move completed vehicles to dealers should help GM increase the available inventory back toward the 60 days’ supply that was considered optimal by the US automotive industry in its pre-pandemic days.
An example from back in May 2022 when 11,000 Chevy Silverado HD trucks that were finished and ready to ship had to be parked instead as there was no available transport at GM’s Oshaway plant.
“Bottom line is, the bad weather, the storm is behind us,” McCluskey said. “It’s a very bright future.”