March 14, 2024 • 21 mins
Discover why Isuzu Trucks is the #1 cabover in North America with Bryan Gerber, National Account Manager at Rush Truck Centres of Canada. We dive into the features and benefits of the N-Series and F-Series truck models including their turning radius, safety, payload capabilities, and the Priority Service Maintenance Program that will help simplify your operations. Listen now.
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Episode Transcript
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Jason Cuddy (00:15):
Hello and welcome to another episode of the
Transportation Exchange podcastpresented by Rush Truck Centres
of Canada.
I'm your host, Jason Cuddy, andon today's episode we welcome
Bryan Gerber, who oversees theIsuzu product line, here with us
at Rush.
Bryan welcome to the podcast.
Bryan Gerber (00:30):
Thanks, nice to be here finally, on behalf of
Isuzu.
Jason Cuddy (00:35):
Part of the sweet spot of why this truck works so
well compared to some of theOEM's, and we'll get into kind
of each of the different lines,but basically it's design.
This is a cab over design, sothese things are incredibly
nimble, right.
It's very unique to thisproduct compared to everything
else that at least Rush carries.
So maybe kind of walk usthrough what you're seeing, as
you've taken over kind of theproduct line of you know the you
know, the surprisingness ofoperating the vehicle, but also
(00:57):
kind of just where it fits in inthe marketplace.
Bryan Gerber (00:58):
Well it is.
It's kind of a strangesensation when you get into one
of these.
After you know I've been in theindustry for roughly 25 years,
never really had a whole lot todo with the medium or light duty
segment.
So you know, for instance, afew weeks ago I was moving
trucks around the yard just tokind of clean up the lineup a
little bit, and I had more funthat day moving Isuzu trucks
around because it's a strangefeeling if you haven't been in a
(01:20):
cab over.
I mean, I grew up with that.
When I was a kid my dad was atruck driver and often drove
those old Astro cabovers andwhatnot.
So I was, I'm used to it.
But you know, sitting in theredriving you're actually slightly
ahead of the front axle, sowhen you're parking pulling up
to a curb you can actually pullthe thing right up over the curb
and you can see it in yourfront, ahead of the front axle.
So from a maneuverabilitystandpoint, especially in a city
(01:43):
like Toronto or the.
GTA surrounding areas, thistruck is ideal.
Like if you're running astandard conventional four by
two medium duty truck.
If weight isn't an issue,you're crazy not to look at
these trucks.
Yeah, even with the weightstandard, like our, our bread
and butter is the NRR diesel.
It's a 19.
5 GVW truck, so you can get 10,11,000 pounds of payload on that
(02:05):
, which you know if you're, youknow, moving around a skid steer
loader or appliances or any ofthat stuff you're easily going
to have enough, yeah.
Jason Cuddy (02:14):
Yeah, yeah, and that final mile too right, like
a lot of that, is where thesetrucks fit in.
Well, you're into the city andyou can picture it driving in.
You know, in a major urbancenter, you're at a set of
lights in a cab over you can see, like you said, right in the
crosswalk right in front of youand traditional conventional,
someone could be crossing infront of your hood and they'll
cross right up against it andyou won't see them.
Right.
So from a safety point of view,from an operator point of view,
(02:35):
the field of view you have inthis, in this truck, as you're
driving is, is phenomenal.
Bryan Gerber (02:39):
Yeah, I think they say it's something like eight
feet, and I don't know exactlyhow that's measured but, it's
basically from the driver's eye.
Sitting in the seat, you can seeeight feet out in front of the
truck to the pavement, which isjust unbelievable.
Like you can, and leaningforward, you can see right out
in front of the truck.
So visibility second to none.
And, quite frankly, there's nota whole lot of say competition
for a truck like this.
(03:01):
Really, you're coming down tothe pickup trucks the 550 Ford's
or the, the Dodges, and youknow, typically they'll have a
similar GVW, correct.
As a NRR say Yep, it's a biggerfootprint.
Bigger footprint, you're goingto have more maneuverability and
because the low BBC on thesetrucks, you can put a bigger box
on the back as well.
Jason Cuddy (03:24):
Yeah, and so when you talk about that, I mean look
at where it kind of competes inthat world and the different
product lines.
There's basically threedifferent products within the
Isuzu offering.
Maybe walk us through what theyare.
Bryan Gerber (03:34):
Yeah, so there's actually more than three,
there's probably six or seven,but they really step up between
GVW's very tight.
So we've kind of focused onthree different model sizes.
So the NPR- HD has a max GVW of14,500.
In a lot of cases that's plentyfor what this market is doing.
I think people have kind of gotinto the idea that they need to
(03:56):
to overdo it in terms of theircapacity.
But by and large, you know, sixor 8,000 pounds of payload is
generally going to do it.
So that's an NPR.
Comes in a gas or a diesel, yep.
The next size up, which isprobably our bread and butter,
is the NRR.
It's in both a gas and a dieseland it has a 19,500 GVW.
That's kind of the sweet spotbecause there you can get the
(04:18):
landscapers.
Like I said earlier, you canpull a bobcat or something onto
the back, something with someweight.
You can fit a number of mowers,trimmers, whatever you need in
the back and you can go up to a20 foot box on that.
So that's probably the breadand butter model.
The challenge now is, I thinkpeople are trying to rethinking
gas or diesel.
We can get into that later, butover the last, say, year to the
(04:43):
NRR, diesel, which is the sweetspot, has been a little harder
to get.
So we've got more people thathave been looking at the gas and
, quite frankly, for this marketsegment there's no reason why
you shouldn't be looking at agas.
Jason Cuddy (04:54):
And then when we go back to who kind of is
purchasing these.
Traditionally, again it's asmaller fleet, so it's not like
they have a fleet of otherdiesel vehicles.
So as everyone knows, with thediesel you've got different
after treatment systems andafter.
There's other touch points thatyou know.
If you're not a truck person bynature, you know it's a bit
more challenging from themaintenance side.
You know a bit more to learndifferent.
More cost may be more downtime.
(05:15):
So by going with a gas optionit's more familiar to what you
may be driving back and forth towork already you know, less,
less maintenance items to worryabout as far as running it, and
maybe just a little bit easierjust to just incorporate into
your everyday business offeringspotentially.
Bryan Gerber (05:28):
Absolutely, Absolutely.
And you know when you get intothe maintenance side of things
as well, you can put inmaintenance programs together
with these trucks.
So if you're a non truck person,this is a fantastic option for
you because you can essentiallybe covered for five years,
basically bumper to bumper, interms of not only your component
coverages but towing and alsoalso maintenance programs.
(05:50):
So you can kind of pre scheduleyour maintenance programs at
the time of purchase and thistruck is basically covered for
you.
Yeah, so yeah.
And then the last segment isthe F series.
So the FVR goes up to a 30,000pound GVW.
That is an air brake truck thatcomes through the US.
So you need a Z-endorsement tooperate it.
(06:12):
The others, you don't you keepit under the 19.5 and you're
going to be fine with just aregular license.
But you do need a CDL to drivethe F series.
But you know it's a worthycompetitor to any medium duty
truck.
You know small dumps, any ofthat stuff.
The FVR, especially in a citylike Toronto, it's worth looking
at because you get into some ofthese downtown construction
(06:34):
projects and they're a nightmareto get down there with a big
conventional truck, whereas youcan do some of that job with a
medium duty.
In fact, you know, on a kind ofan side note I had doing a
renovation at home right now andhad one of these junk companies
come in, which is my newfavorite thing, because they
clear out all this stuff youdon't want to touch.
But these guys come in and theyshow up in an NPR HD Isuzu and
(06:56):
they've got it loaded up withappliances and all this stuff.
It's amazing they pack thosethings tight and they can get in
anywhere with them.
Jason Cuddy (07:02):
So that's good point.
I mean, when you get back tothe F, the FVR series, it's
again.
It's still a cab over, right?
So for a city use, or if youneed that a little bit longer
body, some guys again, you don'tnecessarily need to wait, but
if you're cubing up beforeyou're weighing out and you can
get a bigger body and 20 feet onthat too, which is nice, so you
can get that big footprint of a24 26 foot body without the
(07:23):
huge footprint of a conventionaltruck, right?
Bryan Gerber (07:25):
So yeah, and you can go right up to a 30, 30 foot
body on a 248 inch wheelbaseFVR, which is huge.
I mean typically, if you'rebuying, say, a typical four by
two medium truck, you're goingto keep body size to 24 26 feet
but because your overall lengthis tighter here in your
maneuverability you can go up toa 30 foot box without you know
being too concerned.
I just had a couple sent outfor us.
(07:48):
We've got them with 26 footboxes on.
We went a little bit smallerwith lift gates.
But yeah, we're trying to getthese things upfitted and so
people can actually take a lookat them and see that when
they're looking, not thinkingmaybe in a cab over, right, and
that's often what happens therein the sale process with
something else and they look ata cab over and it's just, it's a
no brainer.
Jason Cuddy (08:08):
Yeah, no, for sure, it definitely makes sense.
And we you double it on briefly, but you know there's the gas
versus diesel, versus the newpowertrain which is electric.
Maybe we'll kind of walkthrough where Isuzu plays and
kind of you know what we seethere.
You double it a bit on gas.
Maybe we'll dig in a bit moreand kind of you know, find a
sweet spot for gas.
It's maybe in a commercialvehicle, isn't the go to thought
of for fuel.
Bryan Gerber (08:28):
Yeah, for the, for the you know fleet of trucks,
that mainly into the higherclass trucks where they're
running diesel engines.
Yeah, it makes sense to have adiesel but quite frankly,
running around the city you'renot going to get a ton of the
benefits out of the diesel thatyou're going in.
Quite frankly, the, the 350horsepower gas in the NRR, in
the N series, has the sametorque rating as what the diesel
(08:50):
does.
The 215 horsepower diesel, soyou're still going to get
similar power.
The nice thing is, if it's a,if it's a customer who's not
into trucks, it's going to bevery similar to their automotive
vehicle.
So they don't have to worryabout things like DPFs or diesel
exhaust fluid and topping thatstuff up.
You know it's a bit of adifferent beast.
(09:11):
The diesel guy won't be worriedabout that.
But it can be a littleuncomfortable for the person not
used to that.
Sure, and you know, quitefrankly, the N-Series has a very
automotive feel to it.
Yeah, you get into the F-Seriestruck and it feels like a truck
.
You know, it's beefier, it'sheavy, it's got a bigger rubber
on it, so it feels like a truck,whereas that N-Series class the
(09:31):
NPR, the NRR you can becompletely inexperienced, get in
this truck and drive it aroundand feel comfortable in it.
Jason Cuddy (09:38):
Yeah, that's a good point.
And then coming soon I meanit'll be a while until we kind
of maybe see it here at thedealership but recently
announced anyways from Isuzu isthe electric, the NRR electric,
we'll touch a little bit on kindof what that looks like, that
you know people can get intoeventually.
Bryan Gerber (09:54):
Yeah, I mean, a great place to look at the NRR
electric is on the Isuzu NorthAmerica YouTube channel.
They've got some great videos,some walkarounds they break the
truck down.
There's a lot of neat optionson this truck and you can,
depending on how fast you wantto charge this truck and how far
you need it to go, you canchoose select different battery
pack sizes.
(10:14):
So you know that's going tohave two things.
One, it's going to affect yourroute distance.
Jason Cuddy (10:19):
Right.
Bryan Gerber (10:20):
But if you're in a return to base route in the
city and you're not putting on alot of kilometers, it's, you
probably don't need the fullnine pack battery pack, because
I think they can go from eithera four battery pack right up to
a nine yeah, which I think thenine pack.
I think it's rated at 250 milesor something like that.
It's pretty decent it is.
It is, but you and I weretalking earlier and I think this
(10:41):
market segment was ideally madefor an electric truck.
Jason Cuddy (10:45):
Yeah.
Bryan Gerber (10:45):
You know where electric shines is when you're
in a start-stop operation, whereit can have regenerative
braking and it can takeadvantage of the electrical
system.
A line haul in an electrictruck we're just not there yet.
No, but these trucks, you know95% of their usage is you're not
running from, you know, Windsorto Montreal with one of these.
You're running around the city,whether it's Kitchener,
(11:05):
Waterloo, it's Toronto, it'sOshawa, wherever that is.
Yeah, you're in city, you'relots of stops and starts, so it
thrives in that scenario.
And then, really, you're goingto adjust your battery packs
based on what kind of payloadyou need.
Jason Cuddy (11:17):
Yeah, it makes sense.
And what I know from previouslives where you know guys had
early editions of hybrids, youknow, and the kind of the bread
trucks that you see rippingaround the intention was to kind
of get to this, because it'sthe final mile, you're not
putting many miles on you know,but the engine was running all
day.
So the hybrid idea was to takesomewhere and turn off the
engine.
Obviously, you know, fromexhaust all that you know was
refined but but now it's fullyelectric.
(11:39):
But the nice part of this,compared to those old school
kind of first generation one, isfor driver comfort.
And the, noise is huge.
You can hear more, you can, youknow, the visibility is still
the same, obviously.
But the big one was the HVACsystem.
Heating, air conditioning worksperfectly fine on electric
vehicle when you had thesehybrid units, or if you have a
diesel one now, you shut it off,you can't idle.
So in the winter you shut itoff, you hop back in.
(11:59):
It's freezing, the truck nevergets warm enough to get
comfortable or in the summernever gets cool enough to be
comfortable.
Now with this electric you cando your start, stop, start, stop
and maintain the temperatureinside.
So just driver comfort alonewill be great.
But the nice part with theIsuzu lineup the way they've
done compared to some of theother OEMs is that offering of
battery packs where it's notlike, hey, it's this or that and
that's it.
You can really fine tune yourapplication and you know it's
(12:20):
just kind of coming to marketwith it.
It's got the new cab.
We'll talk about that too.
Bryan Gerber (12:23):
Yeah, that's exciting.
Jason Cuddy (12:24):
But it's, you know it's.
So it'll be a while till we seeit, but it'll be interesting.
I think to your point, this iswhere the electric really shines
in an application as it getsrolled out into the industry.
This is the final mile isdefinitely home for it.
Bryan Gerber (12:36):
Yeah, the smaller stuff, I mean it's, it's, it's
almost more like the automotiveside.
It's really taken off, butyou're not really seeing it in
the heavy trucks.
Yeah, we're just not quitethere yet.
I mean, you know there's talkabout the charging stations and
all that.
I don't think that's as big ofan issue right now as range.
And then you've got the earlyadopters.
When you get to your secondstage right now and you see this
(12:57):
in the automotive industryright now, the early adopters
are coming around to trade endsand what's happened in five
years is the technologiesadvance so fast.
So so you know, that's kind ofcritical too.
So we're kind of getting therewith the electric truck.
I think that I think it's goingto be a winner.
It's starting to get releasedright now.
I think where you'll see theinitial trucks go was probably
into California where they dealwith carbon EPA a little bit
(13:19):
more stringent than what we dealwith here, but we'll start
seeing it here, probably laterin this year, into 2025.
Toronto, the GTA, is afantastic market for it, oh for
sure.
So, but you know there's otherfactors involved too that's
going to make it viable, likegovernment incentives and
whatnot to help subsidize thecost, because, quite frankly,
(13:39):
with electrical right now, westill need that subsidy.
Jason Cuddy (13:41):
Yes, I agree, yeah, to make sense for a lot of
customers, so, and a lot of it'sgoing obviously to Municipal
and governments you know wherethere's the need for it in order
to take some mandates but, youknow, for the final mile
customers, I think with theright rebates now I think it
starts to make sense.
Bryan Gerber (13:56):
Yeah, exactly I think it's going to be.
We're not there yet, but in thefuture it's going to be
probably driving the bulk of oursales.
In fact, with governmentmandates coming, it's going to
have to Exactly, so it's notreally a matter of if it's when
Exactly?
Jason Cuddy (14:10):
And, in the interim , to keep to your, your, your
diesel or gas vehicles running.
Isuzu has a different programthat a lot of other OEMs don't
really offer and it's their PSMPright.
Their preventive servicemaintenance program, I believe
is the title, but basically it'sits prepaid maintenance program
.
They walk us through, kind ofwhat, what that is and that's
again unique to Isuzu.
Bryan Gerber (14:27):
Yeah, they have.
I think it's four differentoptions that you can choose and
it really comes down to thedepth of the service that you
want to get.
You know they'll change oil,they'll grease fittings, they'll
do all your regular maintenanceand basically what you do is
well, you know the guys buyingthis truck, as we talked about
earlier, they aren't necessarilytruck people, so they're not
going to have a shop.
They likely don't have theirown mechanics.
(14:47):
They don't want to be doingtheir own oil changes and
services and all that stuff and,quite frankly, with the
complexity of the trucks today,I don't think most people want
to do that.
So what we do is we roll a PSMPprogram in right from the start
where we preschedule yourservices and again, it just
depends on how in depth you wantto get.
We can customize them towhatever you're looking for and
then we'll roll that.
(15:08):
You can roll it right into yourfinancing if you want, quite
frankly, and you're locked in attoday's rates, which is kind of
nice.
Jason Cuddy (15:14):
Yeah.
Bryan Gerber (15:14):
So that we can have you know the other thing,
which is kind of on the sideyou're covered for two years of
oil changes.
So you buy an Isuzu and thecoverage is outstanding.
So for the first two years youroil changes are free.
So it gives you more of thereason to come back to your
dealer.
Jason Cuddy (15:30):
Yeah, and on top of that their warranties from all,
especially on the diesel side.
You've got a base three yearwith an extended five that's
included on the diesel and alsoincludes towing.
Bryan Gerber (15:39):
Yes.
Jason Cuddy (15:39):
So to your point, over a five year term with a
preventative service maintenanceprogram.
So you have your maintenancecoverage after your two years of
oil changes, plus all yourwarranty.
It's almost like having a fullservice lease.
Well, it is On an on an ownvehicle.
Bryan Gerber (15:52):
It is.
It's fantastic for that guythat, like I said, isn't a truck
person.
They can get in, they can havefull coverage really for five
years.
Your base vehicle warrantieshere are three years.
I believe.
It's three years unlimited.
But then you can add on from, Ibelieve on the gas it's $600
and you can extend yourwarranties out to five years.
It's ridiculous, but on thediesels they're actually
(16:13):
throwing that in.
So you get that full coverageto five years.
But then the other thing that'sremarkable about Isuzu is the
towing coverage.
So you get your three yearstowing but if you extend your
warranty out to five years youget towing coverage for a full
five years, which is phenomenal.
So it's towing to the nearestto Isuzu dealer.
But that kind of coverage Imean, if you're worried about
(16:34):
piece of mind you're not a truckperson, you're a little worried
about the truck this has gotyou covered for five years.
So it's really remarkable tothe truck business.
Again, it's almost more like anautomotive program.
Jason Cuddy (16:44):
Yes, and I guess, as we talked on briefly, is you
know.
So all that's happening behindthe scenes and right now the
next thing coming down the lineis the new cab.
So the electric is going tokind of be the first adaptation
of the new cab.
But you know it's.
It's not all changes to thesetrucks over the last handful of
years, but this seems to be avery kind of significant change
in design.
Bryan Gerber (17:04):
It is.
So it's more than just a cabrefresh.
It's a full cab redesign and itactually is starting with the
NRR series.
So that's been one of thereasons that we've had a bit of
a slower trickle of NRRs comingin.
We want more stock of NRRscoming in, but it's the first to
receive the full new cabredesign.
So typically in these type oflaunches you have a ramp up
(17:26):
procedure.
So that's what's happeningright now.
We've got a number of them onorder that we're expecting to
see probably into May, whichwill be the full new cab design.
So the cab it's just they'vechanged some of the air and
dynamics and improved the crossflow of air on the on the cab,
but they've kind of still stuckto the traditional Isuzu look.
It's got some new headlights, anew bumper inside the cab, a
(17:48):
new plush interior steeringwheels change the cab stack or
the center stack has changed.
So you know the cab has beenchanged from the ground up.
It's extremely comfortable, butmore than anything, the looks
are stunning.
So it's a great looking truck.
I'm excited to get some instock here.
Jason Cuddy (18:04):
Nice.
And then one thing we didn'ttalk about as we you know, we
talked about that some of thetechnology and the safety
features and just thedrivability is they have an
incredible ADAS system, which istheir safety system, which, you
know, given the visibility outof, out of the cab over, still
good, but still has some uniquefeatures that help even protect
the pedestrians and outsideworld a little bit more.
Bryan Gerber (18:23):
Absolutely Well.
They actually have two driverinteractive systems.
One is simply just a passivesystem so you can add that kind
of aftermarket where it'll justkind of buzz and beep if you're
going outside the lines, whereasthe full ADAS system, which is
your fully integrated system,you know it interacts with the
steering, the brakes, everythingso it'll actually pull you back
(18:44):
into the lane.
It has adaptive cruise, so youset your cruise, say, at 100
kilometers an hour, but you comeup onto another car, it'll
maintain your steering distanceA lot of these things that
you're seeing in new cars.
Right, if you see it in yourcar, it's probably available on
a truck.
Jason Cuddy (18:58):
Yeah.
Bryan Gerber (18:58):
One of the great systems that they have on this
truck, though, as part of theADAS system, is when you're
sitting at a stop light, there'sa sensor in the truck, so if
something steps in front of thecab now we already have great
visibility, but if somethingsteps in front of the cab or you
have a car pulls in front ofyou, you hit the throttle to
leave after a stop.
It'll actually take away thepower from the throttle If it
(19:19):
senses something in front of you.
It may be a car stop.
That was supposed to.
It's just a safety featurewhich you know.
Operating in the city withthese trucks, you know you're
downtown Toronto you've gotbikes.
you've got cars.
You've got people walking likeI don't like driving my car
downtown, much less one of these.
So that ADAS system issomething that really can
protect you, and it's notstandard from the factory.
We don't order it standard onall of our stock trucks, but we
(19:43):
are seeing you see asignificantly bigger uptake of
it in our orders.
Jason Cuddy (19:47):
Yeah, and it makes sense.
I think you've seen that withfleets on all levels, so
starting to it's starting to bea bit more common, I think for
the longest time it was.
We'll look at it.
What's the option cost?
But I'm seeing a lot morefleets, especially on the
passive stuff, significantlybeing added on, just as a driver
aid to help them.
But you know, but a featurelike that is just, you know,
from a safety point of view, youcan see it just getting adopted
(20:08):
as we carry on.
Bryan Gerber (20:09):
Yeah, it's becoming almost standard on
class A trucks.
Most of the fleets, forinsurance reasons, are putting
on their trucks and I thinkpeople are just getting used to
it Like it doesn't bother me.
In my own car it has the lane,lane, keep, assist and all these
features that kind of help youout.
You can get a little bit lazy,but yeah they're fantastic
features Once you start usingthem in a truck like this, and
the last thing any smallbusiness needs is to get into a
(20:32):
bad accident where they'reliable.
So right systems like these.
You know you have one instantwhere they help you out and it's
paid for itself.
Jason Cuddy (20:39):
That's a good point .
No, all good points.
So again we want to thank you,come in and give us an overview
of kind of, you know, Russia'sfootprint with the Isuzu product
line, but also just the productline in general.
I think we touched on a lot ofkey points and things.
That is, a lot of greatinformation on the Isuzu website
.
As far as all the you know, thein depth information that people
may be looking for.
A lot of videos, walkarounds,all that's there, so definitely
check it out and then reach outto us for any additional
information.
Bryan Gerber (21:00):
Yeah, for sure, and you know, on our website
we're making a point to putpictures of the actual trucks up
with the bodies on them asthey're upfitted.
You know what we've got instock and, like I mentioned
earlier, the Isuzu commercialtrucks YouTube channel is
fantastic.
It's got pretty much anythingyou want to know about an Isuzu
product.
You know we've got a greatsales force as well.
(21:20):
Any one of them can answer anyquestions.
Jason Cuddy (21:22):
Excellent.
Well, hey, that concludes thisepisode.
I do want to thank Bryan fortaking time to join us and to
catch up on past episodes.
Check outtransportationexchangepodcast.
ca.
And until next time.
Thanks for listening.
Hello and welcome to another episode of the
Transportation Exchange podcastpresented by Rush Truck Centres
of Canada.
I'm your host, Jason Cuddy, andon today's episode we welcome
Bryan Gerber, who oversees theIsuzu product line, here with us
at Rush.
Bryan welcome to the podcast.
Bryan Gerber (00:30):
Thanks, nice to be here finally, on behalf of
Isuzu.
Jason Cuddy (00:35):
Part of the sweet spot of why this truck works so
well compared to some of theOEM's, and we'll get into kind
of each of the different lines,but basically it's design.
This is a cab over design, sothese things are incredibly
nimble, right.
It's very unique to thisproduct compared to everything
else that at least Rush carries.
So maybe kind of walk usthrough what you're seeing, as
you've taken over kind of theproduct line of you know the you
know, the surprisingness ofoperating the vehicle, but also
(00:57):
kind of just where it fits in inthe marketplace.
Bryan Gerber (00:58):
Well it is.
It's kind of a strangesensation when you get into one
of these.
After you know I've been in theindustry for roughly 25 years,
never really had a whole lot todo with the medium or light duty
segment.
So you know, for instance, afew weeks ago I was moving
trucks around the yard just tokind of clean up the lineup a
little bit, and I had more funthat day moving Isuzu trucks
around because it's a strangefeeling if you haven't been in a
(01:20):
cab over.
I mean, I grew up with that.
When I was a kid my dad was atruck driver and often drove
those old Astro cabovers andwhatnot.
So I was, I'm used to it.
But you know, sitting in theredriving you're actually slightly
ahead of the front axle, sowhen you're parking pulling up
to a curb you can actually pullthe thing right up over the curb
and you can see it in yourfront, ahead of the front axle.
So from a maneuverabilitystandpoint, especially in a city
(01:43):
like Toronto or the.
GTA surrounding areas, thistruck is ideal.
Like if you're running astandard conventional four by
two medium duty truck.
If weight isn't an issue,you're crazy not to look at
these trucks.
Yeah, even with the weightstandard, like our, our bread
and butter is the NRR diesel.
It's a 19.
5 GVW truck, so you can get 10,11,000 pounds of payload on that
(02:05):
, which you know if you're, youknow, moving around a skid steer
loader or appliances or any ofthat stuff you're easily going
to have enough, yeah.
Jason Cuddy (02:14):
Yeah, yeah, and that final mile too right, like
a lot of that, is where thesetrucks fit in.
Well, you're into the city andyou can picture it driving in.
You know, in a major urbancenter, you're at a set of
lights in a cab over you can see, like you said, right in the
crosswalk right in front of youand traditional conventional,
someone could be crossing infront of your hood and they'll
cross right up against it andyou won't see them.
Right.
So from a safety point of view,from an operator point of view,
(02:35):
the field of view you have inthis, in this truck, as you're
driving is, is phenomenal.
Bryan Gerber (02:39):
Yeah, I think they say it's something like eight
feet, and I don't know exactlyhow that's measured but, it's
basically from the driver's eye.
Sitting in the seat, you can seeeight feet out in front of the
truck to the pavement, which isjust unbelievable.
Like you can, and leaningforward, you can see right out
in front of the truck.
So visibility second to none.
And, quite frankly, there's nota whole lot of say competition
for a truck like this.
(03:01):
Really, you're coming down tothe pickup trucks the 550 Ford's
or the, the Dodges, and youknow, typically they'll have a
similar GVW, correct.
As a NRR say Yep, it's a biggerfootprint.
Bigger footprint, you're goingto have more maneuverability and
because the low BBC on thesetrucks, you can put a bigger box
on the back as well.
Jason Cuddy (03:24):
Yeah, and so when you talk about that, I mean look
at where it kind of competes inthat world and the different
product lines.
There's basically threedifferent products within the
Isuzu offering.
Maybe walk us through what theyare.
Bryan Gerber (03:34):
Yeah, so there's actually more than three,
there's probably six or seven,but they really step up between
GVW's very tight.
So we've kind of focused onthree different model sizes.
So the NPR- HD has a max GVW of14,500.
In a lot of cases that's plentyfor what this market is doing.
I think people have kind of gotinto the idea that they need to
(03:56):
to overdo it in terms of theircapacity.
But by and large, you know, sixor 8,000 pounds of payload is
generally going to do it.
So that's an NPR.
Comes in a gas or a diesel, yep.
The next size up, which isprobably our bread and butter,
is the NRR.
It's in both a gas and a dieseland it has a 19,500 GVW.
That's kind of the sweet spotbecause there you can get the
(04:18):
landscapers.
Like I said earlier, you canpull a bobcat or something onto
the back, something with someweight.
You can fit a number of mowers,trimmers, whatever you need in
the back and you can go up to a20 foot box on that.
So that's probably the breadand butter model.
The challenge now is, I thinkpeople are trying to rethinking
gas or diesel.
We can get into that later, butover the last, say, year to the
(04:43):
NRR, diesel, which is the sweetspot, has been a little harder
to get.
So we've got more people thathave been looking at the gas and
, quite frankly, for this marketsegment there's no reason why
you shouldn't be looking at agas.
Jason Cuddy (04:54):
And then when we go back to who kind of is
purchasing these.
Traditionally, again it's asmaller fleet, so it's not like
they have a fleet of otherdiesel vehicles.
So as everyone knows, with thediesel you've got different
after treatment systems andafter.
There's other touch points thatyou know.
If you're not a truck person bynature, you know it's a bit
more challenging from themaintenance side.
You know a bit more to learndifferent.
More cost may be more downtime.
(05:15):
So by going with a gas optionit's more familiar to what you
may be driving back and forth towork already you know, less,
less maintenance items to worryabout as far as running it, and
maybe just a little bit easierjust to just incorporate into
your everyday business offeringspotentially.
Bryan Gerber (05:28):
Absolutely, Absolutely.
And you know when you get intothe maintenance side of things
as well, you can put inmaintenance programs together
with these trucks.
So if you're a non truck person,this is a fantastic option for
you because you can essentiallybe covered for five years,
basically bumper to bumper, interms of not only your component
coverages but towing and alsoalso maintenance programs.
(05:50):
So you can kind of pre scheduleyour maintenance programs at
the time of purchase and thistruck is basically covered for
you.
Yeah, so yeah.
And then the last segment isthe F series.
So the FVR goes up to a 30,000pound GVW.
That is an air brake truck thatcomes through the US.
So you need a Z-endorsement tooperate it.
(06:12):
The others, you don't you keepit under the 19.5 and you're
going to be fine with just aregular license.
But you do need a CDL to drivethe F series.
But you know it's a worthycompetitor to any medium duty
truck.
You know small dumps, any ofthat stuff.
The FVR, especially in a citylike Toronto, it's worth looking
at because you get into some ofthese downtown construction
(06:34):
projects and they're a nightmareto get down there with a big
conventional truck, whereas youcan do some of that job with a
medium duty.
In fact, you know, on a kind ofan side note I had doing a
renovation at home right now andhad one of these junk companies
come in, which is my newfavorite thing, because they
clear out all this stuff youdon't want to touch.
But these guys come in and theyshow up in an NPR HD Isuzu and
(06:56):
they've got it loaded up withappliances and all this stuff.
It's amazing they pack thosethings tight and they can get in
anywhere with them.
Jason Cuddy (07:02):
So that's good point.
I mean, when you get back tothe F, the FVR series, it's
again.
It's still a cab over, right?
So for a city use, or if youneed that a little bit longer
body, some guys again, you don'tnecessarily need to wait, but
if you're cubing up beforeyou're weighing out and you can
get a bigger body and 20 feet onthat too, which is nice, so you
can get that big footprint of a24 26 foot body without the
(07:23):
huge footprint of a conventionaltruck, right?
Bryan Gerber (07:25):
So yeah, and you can go right up to a 30, 30 foot
body on a 248 inch wheelbaseFVR, which is huge.
I mean typically, if you'rebuying, say, a typical four by
two medium truck, you're goingto keep body size to 24 26 feet
but because your overall lengthis tighter here in your
maneuverability you can go up toa 30 foot box without you know
being too concerned.
I just had a couple sent outfor us.
(07:48):
We've got them with 26 footboxes on.
We went a little bit smallerwith lift gates.
But yeah, we're trying to getthese things upfitted and so
people can actually take a lookat them and see that when
they're looking, not thinkingmaybe in a cab over, right, and
that's often what happens therein the sale process with
something else and they look ata cab over and it's just, it's a
no brainer.
Jason Cuddy (08:08):
Yeah, no, for sure, it definitely makes sense.
And we you double it on briefly, but you know there's the gas
versus diesel, versus the newpowertrain which is electric.
Maybe we'll kind of walkthrough where Isuzu plays and
kind of you know what we seethere.
You double it a bit on gas.
Maybe we'll dig in a bit moreand kind of you know, find a
sweet spot for gas.
It's maybe in a commercialvehicle, isn't the go to thought
of for fuel.
Bryan Gerber (08:28):
Yeah, for the, for the you know fleet of trucks,
that mainly into the higherclass trucks where they're
running diesel engines.
Yeah, it makes sense to have adiesel but quite frankly,
running around the city you'renot going to get a ton of the
benefits out of the diesel thatyou're going in.
Quite frankly, the, the 350horsepower gas in the NRR, in
the N series, has the sametorque rating as what the diesel
(08:50):
does.
The 215 horsepower diesel, soyou're still going to get
similar power.
The nice thing is, if it's a,if it's a customer who's not
into trucks, it's going to bevery similar to their automotive
vehicle.
So they don't have to worryabout things like DPFs or diesel
exhaust fluid and topping thatstuff up.
You know it's a bit of adifferent beast.
(09:11):
The diesel guy won't be worriedabout that.
But it can be a littleuncomfortable for the person not
used to that.
Sure, and you know, quitefrankly, the N-Series has a very
automotive feel to it.
Yeah, you get into the F-Seriestruck and it feels like a truck
.
You know, it's beefier, it'sheavy, it's got a bigger rubber
on it, so it feels like a truck,whereas that N-Series class the
(09:31):
NPR, the NRR you can becompletely inexperienced, get in
this truck and drive it aroundand feel comfortable in it.
Jason Cuddy (09:38):
Yeah, that's a good point.
And then coming soon I meanit'll be a while until we kind
of maybe see it here at thedealership but recently
announced anyways from Isuzu isthe electric, the NRR electric,
we'll touch a little bit on kindof what that looks like, that
you know people can get intoeventually.
Bryan Gerber (09:54):
Yeah, I mean, a great place to look at the NRR
electric is on the Isuzu NorthAmerica YouTube channel.
They've got some great videos,some walkarounds they break the
truck down.
There's a lot of neat optionson this truck and you can,
depending on how fast you wantto charge this truck and how far
you need it to go, you canchoose select different battery
pack sizes.
(10:14):
So you know that's going tohave two things.
One, it's going to affect yourroute distance.
Jason Cuddy (10:19):
Right.
Bryan Gerber (10:20):
But if you're in a return to base route in the
city and you're not putting on alot of kilometers, it's, you
probably don't need the fullnine pack battery pack, because
I think they can go from eithera four battery pack right up to
a nine yeah, which I think thenine pack.
I think it's rated at 250 milesor something like that.
It's pretty decent it is.
It is, but you and I weretalking earlier and I think this
(10:41):
market segment was ideally madefor an electric truck.
Jason Cuddy (10:45):
Yeah.
Bryan Gerber (10:45):
You know where electric shines is when you're
in a start-stop operation, whereit can have regenerative
braking and it can takeadvantage of the electrical
system.
A line haul in an electrictruck we're just not there yet.
No, but these trucks, you know95% of their usage is you're not
running from, you know, Windsorto Montreal with one of these.
You're running around the city,whether it's Kitchener,
(11:05):
Waterloo, it's Toronto, it'sOshawa, wherever that is.
Yeah, you're in city, you'relots of stops and starts, so it
thrives in that scenario.
And then, really, you're goingto adjust your battery packs
based on what kind of payloadyou need.
Jason Cuddy (11:17):
Yeah, it makes sense.
And what I know from previouslives where you know guys had
early editions of hybrids, youknow, and the kind of the bread
trucks that you see rippingaround the intention was to kind
of get to this, because it'sthe final mile, you're not
putting many miles on you know,but the engine was running all
day.
So the hybrid idea was to takesomewhere and turn off the
engine.
Obviously, you know, fromexhaust all that you know was
refined but but now it's fullyelectric.
(11:39):
But the nice part of this,compared to those old school
kind of first generation one, isfor driver comfort.
And the, noise is huge.
You can hear more, you can, youknow, the visibility is still
the same, obviously.
But the big one was the HVACsystem.
Heating, air conditioning worksperfectly fine on electric
vehicle when you had thesehybrid units, or if you have a
diesel one now, you shut it off,you can't idle.
So in the winter you shut itoff, you hop back in.
(11:59):
It's freezing, the truck nevergets warm enough to get
comfortable or in the summernever gets cool enough to be
comfortable.
Now with this electric you cando your start, stop, start, stop
and maintain the temperatureinside.
So just driver comfort alonewill be great.
But the nice part with theIsuzu lineup the way they've
done compared to some of theother OEMs is that offering of
battery packs where it's notlike, hey, it's this or that and
that's it.
You can really fine tune yourapplication and you know it's
(12:20):
just kind of coming to marketwith it.
It's got the new cab.
We'll talk about that too.
Bryan Gerber (12:23):
Yeah, that's exciting.
Jason Cuddy (12:24):
But it's, you know it's.
So it'll be a while till we seeit, but it'll be interesting.
I think to your point, this iswhere the electric really shines
in an application as it getsrolled out into the industry.
This is the final mile isdefinitely home for it.
Bryan Gerber (12:36):
Yeah, the smaller stuff, I mean it's, it's, it's
almost more like the automotiveside.
It's really taken off, butyou're not really seeing it in
the heavy trucks.
Yeah, we're just not quitethere yet.
I mean, you know there's talkabout the charging stations and
all that.
I don't think that's as big ofan issue right now as range.
And then you've got the earlyadopters.
When you get to your secondstage right now and you see this
(12:57):
in the automotive industryright now, the early adopters
are coming around to trade endsand what's happened in five
years is the technologiesadvance so fast.
So so you know, that's kind ofcritical too.
So we're kind of getting therewith the electric truck.
I think that I think it's goingto be a winner.
It's starting to get releasedright now.
I think where you'll see theinitial trucks go was probably
into California where they dealwith carbon EPA a little bit
(13:19):
more stringent than what we dealwith here, but we'll start
seeing it here, probably laterin this year, into 2025.
Toronto, the GTA, is afantastic market for it, oh for
sure.
So, but you know there's otherfactors involved too that's
going to make it viable, likegovernment incentives and
whatnot to help subsidize thecost, because, quite frankly,
(13:39):
with electrical right now, westill need that subsidy.
Jason Cuddy (13:41):
Yes, I agree, yeah, to make sense for a lot of
customers, so, and a lot of it'sgoing obviously to Municipal
and governments you know wherethere's the need for it in order
to take some mandates but, youknow, for the final mile
customers, I think with theright rebates now I think it
starts to make sense.
Bryan Gerber (13:56):
Yeah, exactly I think it's going to be.
We're not there yet, but in thefuture it's going to be
probably driving the bulk of oursales.
In fact, with governmentmandates coming, it's going to
have to Exactly, so it's notreally a matter of if it's when
Exactly?
Jason Cuddy (14:10):
And, in the interim , to keep to your, your, your
diesel or gas vehicles running.
Isuzu has a different programthat a lot of other OEMs don't
really offer and it's their PSMPright.
Their preventive servicemaintenance program, I believe
is the title, but basically it'sits prepaid maintenance program
.
They walk us through, kind ofwhat, what that is and that's
again unique to Isuzu.
Bryan Gerber (14:27):
Yeah, they have.
I think it's four differentoptions that you can choose and
it really comes down to thedepth of the service that you
want to get.
You know they'll change oil,they'll grease fittings, they'll
do all your regular maintenanceand basically what you do is
well, you know the guys buyingthis truck, as we talked about
earlier, they aren't necessarilytruck people, so they're not
going to have a shop.
They likely don't have theirown mechanics.
(14:47):
They don't want to be doingtheir own oil changes and
services and all that stuff and,quite frankly, with the
complexity of the trucks today,I don't think most people want
to do that.
So what we do is we roll a PSMPprogram in right from the start
where we preschedule yourservices and again, it just
depends on how in depth you wantto get.
We can customize them towhatever you're looking for and
then we'll roll that.
(15:08):
You can roll it right into yourfinancing if you want, quite
frankly, and you're locked in attoday's rates, which is kind of
nice.
Jason Cuddy (15:14):
Yeah.
Bryan Gerber (15:14):
So that we can have you know the other thing,
which is kind of on the sideyou're covered for two years of
oil changes.
So you buy an Isuzu and thecoverage is outstanding.
So for the first two years youroil changes are free.
So it gives you more of thereason to come back to your
dealer.
Jason Cuddy (15:30):
Yeah, and on top of that their warranties from all,
especially on the diesel side.
You've got a base three yearwith an extended five that's
included on the diesel and alsoincludes towing.
Bryan Gerber (15:39):
Yes.
Jason Cuddy (15:39):
So to your point, over a five year term with a
preventative service maintenanceprogram.
So you have your maintenancecoverage after your two years of
oil changes, plus all yourwarranty.
It's almost like having a fullservice lease.
Well, it is On an on an ownvehicle.
Bryan Gerber (15:52):
It is.
It's fantastic for that guythat, like I said, isn't a truck
person.
They can get in, they can havefull coverage really for five
years.
Your base vehicle warrantieshere are three years.
I believe.
It's three years unlimited.
But then you can add on from, Ibelieve on the gas it's $600
and you can extend yourwarranties out to five years.
It's ridiculous, but on thediesels they're actually
(16:13):
throwing that in.
So you get that full coverageto five years.
But then the other thing that'sremarkable about Isuzu is the
towing coverage.
So you get your three yearstowing but if you extend your
warranty out to five years youget towing coverage for a full
five years, which is phenomenal.
So it's towing to the nearestto Isuzu dealer.
But that kind of coverage Imean, if you're worried about
(16:34):
piece of mind you're not a truckperson, you're a little worried
about the truck this has gotyou covered for five years.
So it's really remarkable tothe truck business.
Again, it's almost more like anautomotive program.
Jason Cuddy (16:44):
Yes, and I guess, as we talked on briefly, is you
know.
So all that's happening behindthe scenes and right now the
next thing coming down the lineis the new cab.
So the electric is going tokind of be the first adaptation
of the new cab.
But you know it's.
It's not all changes to thesetrucks over the last handful of
years, but this seems to be avery kind of significant change
in design.
Bryan Gerber (17:04):
It is.
So it's more than just a cabrefresh.
It's a full cab redesign and itactually is starting with the
NRR series.
So that's been one of thereasons that we've had a bit of
a slower trickle of NRRs comingin.
We want more stock of NRRscoming in, but it's the first to
receive the full new cabredesign.
So typically in these type oflaunches you have a ramp up
(17:26):
procedure.
So that's what's happeningright now.
We've got a number of them onorder that we're expecting to
see probably into May, whichwill be the full new cab design.
So the cab it's just they'vechanged some of the air and
dynamics and improved the crossflow of air on the on the cab,
but they've kind of still stuckto the traditional Isuzu look.
It's got some new headlights, anew bumper inside the cab, a
(17:48):
new plush interior steeringwheels change the cab stack or
the center stack has changed.
So you know the cab has beenchanged from the ground up.
It's extremely comfortable, butmore than anything, the looks
are stunning.
So it's a great looking truck.
I'm excited to get some instock here.
Jason Cuddy (18:04):
Nice.
And then one thing we didn'ttalk about as we you know, we
talked about that some of thetechnology and the safety
features and just thedrivability is they have an
incredible ADAS system, which istheir safety system, which, you
know, given the visibility outof, out of the cab over, still
good, but still has some uniquefeatures that help even protect
the pedestrians and outsideworld a little bit more.
Bryan Gerber (18:23):
Absolutely Well.
They actually have two driverinteractive systems.
One is simply just a passivesystem so you can add that kind
of aftermarket where it'll justkind of buzz and beep if you're
going outside the lines, whereasthe full ADAS system, which is
your fully integrated system,you know it interacts with the
steering, the brakes, everythingso it'll actually pull you back
(18:44):
into the lane.
It has adaptive cruise, so youset your cruise, say, at 100
kilometers an hour, but you comeup onto another car, it'll
maintain your steering distanceA lot of these things that
you're seeing in new cars.
Right, if you see it in yourcar, it's probably available on
a truck.
Jason Cuddy (18:58):
Yeah.
Bryan Gerber (18:58):
One of the great systems that they have on this
truck, though, as part of theADAS system, is when you're
sitting at a stop light, there'sa sensor in the truck, so if
something steps in front of thecab now we already have great
visibility, but if somethingsteps in front of the cab or you
have a car pulls in front ofyou, you hit the throttle to
leave after a stop.
It'll actually take away thepower from the throttle If it
(19:19):
senses something in front of you.
It may be a car stop.
That was supposed to.
It's just a safety featurewhich you know.
Operating in the city withthese trucks, you know you're
downtown Toronto you've gotbikes.
you've got cars.
You've got people walking likeI don't like driving my car
downtown, much less one of these.
So that ADAS system issomething that really can
protect you, and it's notstandard from the factory.
We don't order it standard onall of our stock trucks, but we
(19:43):
are seeing you see asignificantly bigger uptake of
it in our orders.
Jason Cuddy (19:47):
Yeah, and it makes sense.
I think you've seen that withfleets on all levels, so
starting to it's starting to bea bit more common, I think for
the longest time it was.
We'll look at it.
What's the option cost?
But I'm seeing a lot morefleets, especially on the
passive stuff, significantlybeing added on, just as a driver
aid to help them.
But you know, but a featurelike that is just, you know,
from a safety point of view, youcan see it just getting adopted
(20:08):
as we carry on.
Bryan Gerber (20:09):
Yeah, it's becoming almost standard on
class A trucks.
Most of the fleets, forinsurance reasons, are putting
on their trucks and I thinkpeople are just getting used to
it Like it doesn't bother me.
In my own car it has the lane,lane, keep, assist and all these
features that kind of help youout.
You can get a little bit lazy,but yeah they're fantastic
features Once you start usingthem in a truck like this, and
the last thing any smallbusiness needs is to get into a
(20:32):
bad accident where they'reliable.
So right systems like these.
You know you have one instantwhere they help you out and it's
paid for itself.
Jason Cuddy (20:39):
That's a good point .
No, all good points.
So again we want to thank you,come in and give us an overview
of kind of, you know, Russia'sfootprint with the Isuzu product
line, but also just the productline in general.
I think we touched on a lot ofkey points and things.
That is, a lot of greatinformation on the Isuzu website
.
As far as all the you know, thein depth information that people
may be looking for.
A lot of videos, walkarounds,all that's there, so definitely
check it out and then reach outto us for any additional
information.
Bryan Gerber (21:00):
Yeah, for sure, and you know, on our website
we're making a point to putpictures of the actual trucks up
with the bodies on them asthey're upfitted.
You know what we've got instock and, like I mentioned
earlier, the Isuzu commercialtrucks YouTube channel is
fantastic.
It's got pretty much anythingyou want to know about an Isuzu
product.
You know we've got a greatsales force as well.
(21:20):
Any one of them can answer anyquestions.
Jason Cuddy (21:22):
Excellent.
Well, hey, that concludes thisepisode.
I do want to thank Bryan fortaking time to join us and to
catch up on past episodes.
Check outtransportationexchangepodcast.
ca.
And until next time.
Thanks for listening.
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On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!