Used-truck warranty evolution, coverage improvements, and what to consider when evaluating

Wade Bontrager, CEO of National Truck Protection, came to the now more than four-decade provider of used-truck warranties to owner-operators and small fleets owners around the time of NTP's 2018 purchase of Premium 2000, a fellow used-warranty provider. The following years have seen a systematic improvement process for the company, which still offers both NTP and Premium 2000 warranty brands but with a close focus on transparent contracts and more customer-beneficial practices that Bontrager lays out in this podcast.

We dig in here, too, with some of the themes unearthed by Overdrive’s own News Editor Matt Cole in a three-part feature about the evolution of the used-truck warranty market. That feature wrapped up yesterday, September 15, at OverdriveOnline.com: https://www.overdriveonline.com/equipment/article/15296811/usedtruck-warranty-dynamics-on-the-move-in-response-to-criticism

We hear a lot more from Wade Bontrager, too. His arrival at National Truck Protection in 2018 ushered in a variety of changes in the company’s product offerings that have improved owner-operators’ experience of their used-truck warranties. The changes responded to criticisms that were pretty common among the owner-operator community when it comes to used warranties. Michigan-based small fleet owner Bud Davenport summed up the very bedrock of some of those points of view when he noted that, before he in some ways lucked into used-warranty coverage, his basic thought about any such purchased protection was that it wasn't worth the cost.

Yet after he leased a 2016 Cascadia that came with an NTP warranty already on the truck, it proved valuable when he quickly encountered emissions-system issues, an experience echoed by other owner-operators.

Since the lease of that Cascadia, small fleet owner-operator Davenport’s been a regular customer of NTP’s with a bevy of purchased used trucks.

In short, the evolution of the used-truck warranty market has been generally toward better service, toward more complete coverage of so-called “progressive damages” and, as you’ll hear in this podcast, easier to understand, transparent contracts. Given the high cost of labor and parts in today’s world, not to mention the high cost of used equipment as well, such warranties have taken on new value for used buyers in other ways, too.

Read more about the used-truck warranty market in Overdrive News Editor Matt Cole's three-part series on it starting here: https://www.overdriveonline.com/equipment/article/15295619/with-market-strain-owners-find-value-in-usedtruck-warranties