CAPITAL EQUIPMENT NEWS
MAY 2014
4
S
cania Southern Africa is not only
a company that concentrates on
marketing and sales of trucks and
buses but one that also looks at contributing
to the social upliftment of the population and
initiating programmes aimed at improving
living standards thereby dovetailing with
their promotional activities to create brand
awareness.
Besides environmental concerns, Scania
focuses on broad safety issues, not only
with regard to safety issues on its vehicles
but on the road as well. Scania enjoys close
ties with the Department of Transport and
the Arrive Alive Foundation on matters of
road safety. It invests considerable funds
towards road safety education in local
schools and in the media.
Over the past two decades Scania has
enjoyed a steady growth pattern and
has increased its market share year on
year. They appear to be a company that
has become stronger despite previous
recessionary times and since 2009 have
upped their market share and in terms of
units year on year.
Their whole business model revolves around
providing a complete in-house package
solutions to their clients from manufacturing
to used vehicles, finance, insurance,
contracted services and driver training. The
whole of Scania’s investment portfolio is
geared towards keeping the brand image at
its highest level and having virtually doubled
the size of its assembly facility in Aeroton
in recent years they have upgraded most
of their facilities around the country, in the
short term. The upgrading of the branches
was based on the European specifications
and it is the intention for all these new
facilities to have similar aesthetics.
These new facilities have ensured extensive
service network coverage throughout
South Africa and Southern Africa countries.
Every facility is staffed with highly trained
professional service teams that are trained
in maintenance planning and protocols. With
this on the cards, a well maintained Scania
should minimised downtime throughout its
lifetime and ensure that the uptime benefits
gained from the vehicle will always remain
at its peak.
Maintenance packages have proven to be
successful with many of the larger Scania
clients and in some instances have resulted
in a gain of up to 100 % in uptime. The
packages on offer are designed to suit each
individual client and are tailor made to suit
their particular operating conditions. From
a full repairs and maintenance contract to
one which is a basic service plan with any
additional repairs paid by the client on an
ad hoc basis.
Furthermore, fleets volumes of a feasible
size offer on-site service facilities to clients,
freeing clients of the burden of doing
COVER STORY
Scania redefines
TRANSPORT
SOLUTIONS
By Pierre Sanson
