Kenworth hit a record 11.7 per cent retail sales market share last year for medium-duty vehicles in the US and Canada. That number could grow quickly from events that began five years ago when Kenworth started the process of redesigning its Class 5-7 vehicle lineup.

Kenworth's new designs were drawn up from extensive customer and driver feedback. The production-ready versions are purposefully built to more fully address the critical market needs of buyers and drivers of medium-duty trucks.

Unlike the Class 8 market, businesses that use medium-duty vehicles do not press them into service to turn miles on the highway. The trucks are a means to an end for business owners, who would buy a Class 5 truck, for example, with specific vocational applications in mind, such as landscaping. Mostly non-CDL drivers use the trucks to bring supplies and equipment to jobsites where the real work begins.

“Many of our customers refer to their delivery drivers as sales associates, which shows the true focus of their responsibilities. Our goal was to make these trucks as approachable, intuitive and as easy to operate as a pickup truck,” said Jonathan Duncan, Kenworth design director.

Kenworth’s largest concentration of buyers in medium-duty has traditionally been Class 7. This allowed the company to streamline production by carrying over the same cab used for its higher volume Class 8 sales. As part of the redesign, the company wanted to extend its reach and bring up sales of Class 5-7 trucks.