Enid Mack Sales, Inc., is in it for the long haul, and according to Troy Phillips, president, it’s due to a close-knit community of clients and employees.

“This hasn’t ever been a one-man show,” Phillips said. “We’ve had many good long-time employees and friends who have helped us survive in this business for so long.”

The company was established in September 1976 by L.E. “Les” Phillips, and has remained a stand-alone, independent dealer since then.

“We’ve remained family-owned and operated,” Phillips said. “We’ve been able to create a niche in a market that tends to fall to bigger dealers.”

Enid Mack Sales is an authorized Mack dealer, one of three in Oklahoma. They sell both new and used Mack trucks, as well as trailers. In 2007, Phillips said they sold 125 trucks, and are on track this year to sell as many, if not more.

Enid Mack Sales services mainly small- to mid-sized fleets, — 40 to 100 trucks — from Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas and Arkansas. Macks are unique, Phillips said, because they’re known for doing the “hard jobs.” Enid Mack Sales’ clients include oil field service companies, agriculture-related industries and feed haulers.

Prices for new Mack trucks range from $100,000 to $150,000. That’s nearly doubled since the business began, when Phillips said prices were about $45,000.

Business has been up-and-down in the 29 years of Enid Mack Sales’ existence. During the oil boom days, Phillips said they sold as many as 300 trucks a year. But in 1983, the selling “just quit” and didn’t pick up again until 2002 and 2003.

Through the difficult times, Phillips said loyal customers and employees helped the business.

Now is a “fantastic” time for the company, according to Phillips, with many opportunities for growth. They recently broke ground on a 12,000-square-foot expansion of their fabrication shop, a facet of Enid Mack Sales which brings in additional business. Phillips said they can fabricate equipment to go with trucks, including winches and vacuum tanks.

“We’ve created a really good reputation with our fabrication work,” Phillips said. “That’s equated into sales.”

In addition to selling trucks and fabricating equipment for them, Enid Mack Sales provides parts and service. They also have a 24-hour heavy-duty wrecker service.

Les Phillips started the company as part of a team, but when his partner dropped out shortly after the business venture began, he had to figure out how to make it work, his son said.

“He’s a bootstrapper,” Phillips said. “This business is one he enjoyed for so many years.”

Phillips began working at Enid Mack Sales in 1988, and worked side-by-side with his father for 17 years.

Les Phillips left the company in 2005, due to health reasons.

“This company is a testament to him,” Phillips said.

Paul L. Vikner, president and CEO of Mack Trucks since 2001, will leave that post on April 1 and join the Mack board of directors as vice chairman. Dennis R. Slagle will succeed him at Mack’s top executive post, according to a company announcement today.

Slagle is currently president and CEO of Volvo Construction Equipment North America, another North American operating subsidiary of Mack’s parent the Volvo Group.

Slagle has headed the construction equipment group since 2003 and previously served as president of its largest North American dealer, L.B. Smith Inc. He will move from the Volvo construction equipment headquarters in Asheville, NC, to Mack’s Allentown, PA, headquarters. The press release announcing his appointment noted that “Mack holds a very strong position” in the construction truck market.

Vikner’s appointment as Mack president and CEO in 2001 was his third return to the truck manufacturer, where he began his career in trucking in 1972. Following executive positions with Iveco Trucks of North America and Isuzu Trucks of America, he rejoined Mack in 1995, eventually serving as executive vp-sales and marketing before briefly retiring in 2000.

In his new role on the Mack board, Vikner will also continue to serve as an adviser to the Volvo Group. He has been a member of the Volvo Group Executive Committee since 2003.

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Volvo Trucks North America and subsidiary Mack Trucks say they’ve eliminated freight charges in most cases for shipments of emergency replacement parts from its parts distribution centers (PDCs).

The new program, which the companies say will allow customers now get the parts they need without having to pay additional shipping costs, took effect in the U.S. in mid-January and becomes effective in Canada at the end of March.

This means if a part is not available at a Volvo or Mack dealership, but is available within Volvo’s network of eight and Mack’s seven U.S. and Canadian PDCs, it will be shipped overnight to the dealer at no cost to the customer.

In addition, parts can be ordered after hours and received the next day or ordered on Saturdays for Monday delivery, all with no freight charge. Oversize parts (weighing more than 150 pounds) are shipped via LTL carrier, again with no freight charges to the customer.

“Volvo’s goal is to have better than 90 percent over-the-counter parts availability at its dealers,” said Joy Johnson, director of parts support for Volvo. “If the part is not at the dealer, but is in our industry-leading PDC network, it will be shipped overnight with no freight charge for the customer.”

Adds Chris Gossler, director of parts sales for Mack: “This program eliminates customer freight costs associated with getting an emergency part, on the off chance the part is not in stock.”

Mack Trucks‘ deliveries continued their slump in November, dropping 49 percent from the same month in 2006, its parent company Volvo AB reported Thursday.

But the market forces behind the weak truck demand have changed since earlier this year, when new emissions standards caused truck deliveries to plummet. Slow housing construction and freight demand are now to blame for the weak demand, which Mack expects to continue into 2008.

Mack delivered 1,539 trucks in November, down from 3,016 in the same month last year. Mack deliveries are a direct representation of demand for its trucks. The company does not manufacture trucks on speculation, but responds to orders from dealers.

Mack’s deliveries are slumping only in North America, which accounts for 70 percent of its November deliveries. In South America and Asia, Mack sales are enjoying robust growth because of increased marketing efforts in foreign countries experiencing economic growth.

Mack products are sold in more than 45 countries, and the number of trucks sold in the international market has tripled in the past four years, Mack spokesman John Walsh said.

”The growth in our international business is attributable to a number of factors, including an intensified focus on growing this part of our business, healthier and more stable economies in many parts of the world, a weaker U.S. dollar, and, in our particular case, becoming part of the Volvo Group, which has given us access to markets and resources we simply didn’t have before,” Walsh said.

But international sales remain a small market for Mack. So that success has only softened the blow for Mack’s downturn in the North American truck market, where sales so far this year are down 59 percent compared to last year.

Mack braced for a downturn in fall of 2006 by announcing it would lay off some of its 1,040 workers at its Lower Macungie Township plant, where it makes heavy-duty trucks. The company laid off 350 employees.

Stricter emission rules that took effect in January caused U.S. truck sales, including Mack’s, to plunge. Truck buyers stocked up on trucks in 2006 before the more expensive 2007 models hit the market. The company initially expected the slump to last six months, but then the housing market went bust. Heavy-duty trucks are used in the garbage, construction and freight industries.

In addition to its Lower Macungie plant, Mack employs about 1,000 people at its Allentown headquarters and testing site.

Shares of companies that make Heavy trucks rose Wednesday, pulled up by a strong overall market, along with new data showing an increase in truck orders.

According to data from ACT Research LLC, orders of Class 5 through heavy-duty Class 8 trucks rose 12 percent over November 2006 levels.

The November increase came after a 9 percent jump in October, which was preceded by a drop in the three previous months, according to the data included in an analyst note from Wachovia’s Andrew Casey.

Casey said the sustained strength in orders showed that truck market weakness may have bottomed, which is a relative positive for the companies in the sector, he said.

Also on Wednesday, Paccar Inc. announced a special dividend of $1 per share and a regular dividend of 18 cents per share.

The company said it would increase production at its DAF Trucks subsidiary by 5 percent in the first quarter in light of the strong Western and Central European truck market.

Here how Heavy truck stocks finished Wednesday:

Paccar rose $3.94, or 7.8 percent, to close at $54.55.

Cummins Inc. gained $4.52, or 3.9 percent, to finish at $122.

Eaton Corp. added $2.48, or 2.8 percent, to end at $91.74.

Navistar International Corp. rose $2.20, or 4.4 percent, to close at $52.20.

Santa and Mrs. Claus made a special delivery in Allentown today. Employees of Mack Truck World Headquarters have been collecting toys for children in need. Today a dump truck was filled with all the gifts.

All the donations were then dropped off at the Volunteers of America Children’s Center to be handed out to the kids later this afternoon.

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Mack Trucks Inc. and the United Auto Workers have agreed to extend the terms of union contracts that would have expired at midnight tonight.

The contracts will be extended on a day-to-day basis “to accommodate continuing negotiations,” John Walsh, a Mack Trucks spokesman, said Thursday.

It’s the third time the contracts have been extended for 2,200 workers represented by UAW Local 677 in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Florida.

The truck manufacturer is based in Allentown and is owned by AB Volvo of Sweden.

You could have been forgiven for thinking the Ramada Pelican Waters had become the Coast’s most popular truck stop yesterday, after four Big Mack trucks were parked out the front.

But they weren’t there for a quick stopover to re-fuel and head back out on the road.

In fact, the trucks were on display as part of a four-day convention taking place at the Ramada for the Big Mack Truck group.

The new range of Trucks for 2008, including the Titan, Super-liner, Trident and Granite brands, were on display for sales representatives and national representatives before being taken on a cavalcade tour across Australia.

A spokesperson for Mack Trucks said the sales conference would give more than 160 representatives the opportunity to test drive the Trucks and take part in conference sessions by American designers and engineers who helped create the new models.

She said the representatives also headed to the Big Kart track yesterday to test out their skills, before returning for a number of conferences.

It is the first time the national Big Mack Truck conference has been staged on the Sunshine Coast, which was chosen because of its proximity to the headquarters in Brisbane and the factory at Wacol.