GREENSBORO, N.C — Ron Huibers, Volvo Trucks new President of North America Sales and Marketing, says the North American truck market is so responsive to sudden upticks and downturns that is “almost digital.”

Huibers made the observation to a group of journalists at a roundtable discussion in West Palm Beach, FL., last week.

In response to a question from Today’strucking.com, Huibers predicted 2012 will be “good but choppy” adding the caveat that even though the economy might seem to be in growth mode, “on any given day all it takes is a ‘boo’ and people will pull back.”

“One of my colleagues who has worked in many places around the world says in North America this is the truest form of supply and demand.

“In other parts of the world, things are planned, but here, you can feel the supply and demand almost daily.

“This is a market where you get a jolt from, let’s say the debt crisis, and you feel it and people pull back. It’s almost digital, I’d say. So it’s a choppy forecast but still a good trend line.”

Huibers, who was appointed to the position early this year, is taking the reins of a company that is coming off a record production year.

“2011,” he said, “Boy. In many respects it was a year for us that we didn’t want to see end.”

However, most of the new truck sales for all OEMs in 2011 were due to fleets replacing older vehicles and not because of fleet growth.

At the roundtable, Huibers pointed to several innovations and achievements Volvo celebrated in 2011, including a substantial increase in Volvo’s overall North American marketshare (12.1 percent now compared to 9.6 percent a year ago); the introduction of a whole slate of fuel-savings products at the Mid-America Trucking Show in March, and the new auto-hauler VAH In America.