General Motors has struck ship-thru deals with Morgan Corp. and Supreme Corp. to add bodies to the first Chevrolet Low Cab Forward trucks expected to arrive in late August, according to a General Motors Fleet sales manager.

General Motors is re-entering the cabover segment — the company discontinued the W Series cabovers in 2009 — with a Chevrolet-badged Isuzu N-Series truck that's built in Fujisawa, Japan, and Charlotte, Michigan.

The Chevrolet Low Cab Forward will arrive in late August with seven models powered by a 6.0L gasoline engine, 3.0L turbo-diesel, or 5.2L diesel. GM will offer gasoline models including the 3500 (12,000 GVW) and 4500 (14,500 GVW); the 3.0L diesel 3500HD (13,000 GVW); and 5.2L diesel-powered 4500HD (14,500 GVW), 4500XD (16,000 GVW), 5500HD (17,950 GVW), and 5500XD (19,500 GVW).

Final assembly of the gasoline trucks takes place by Spartan Motors, while the diesel trucks will arrive fully assembled at four ports including Baltimore; Jacksonville, Fla.; San Diego; and Tacoma, Wash.

"We will also have inventory at the ports at the beginning to allow a fleet to have quick access to a chassis for quicker order-to-delivery time," said Brad Beauchamp, Chevrolet Medium Duty Truck commercial sales manager for the Western region. "That will start near the end of August."

In addition to the ship-thru process where trucks are set up for a fleet and delivered to a local dealer for pick up, General Motors will also offer a ship-to process for more customized upfits or set-ups with bodies not offered by Morgan or Supreme.

General Motors will ship initial units to the upfitters to set up in popular configurations and add to bailment pools and as demo units at the approximately 230 Chevrolet Business Elite dealers that have signed up to offer the LCF trucks. GM is offering the trucks at about a third of its Business Elite dealers. The company now counts about 4,000 dealer locations in the U.S.

The initial trucks will mostly be set up as box trucks or refridgerated box trucks with reefer units, Beauchamp said. GM won't offer GMC-badged models, and the trucks must be serviced through Chevrolet dealers.

The LCF trucks will retail for at least $40,900 for the gasoline-powered model and $48,375 for the diesel models. GM is offering a $1,500 street incentive for any of the seven models for fleet buyers.