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Past Issues

September 2005

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AfterSales

Nissan Diesel South Africa and Magnis Trucks hosted a workshop in Tshwane in August where speakers from both companies along with invited specialists put forward a number of issues surrounding the trucking industry as well as giving the audience broader logistics and business practice insights. Underpinning all the presentations was that despite the fact that the truck transport industry is booming, it still suffers many shortcomings when it comes to after-sales service and support writes Paul Collings. 
  

One of the speakers at the workshop was Frans Calitz, Nissan Diesel South Africa's senior manager, parts operations, who put forward price and availability of spare parts as a major concern for truck owners.

"Typical parts divisions are usually perceived to focus on short-term benefits to themselves and most are only interested in supporting their products during their warrantee period. Obviously, they also want to maximise profits during this period and therefore they price their parts quite expensively."

He adds that a monopolistic approach also characterises typical parts divisions, focusing on so-called 'captive parts' where a customer is bound (held 'hostage') to the supplier for the life span of the vehicle, often saddled with bad service and quality.

To overcome this stigma in the truck parts arena, he pointed to the fact that Nissan Diesel launched its 'Genuine Parts' division which he claims "has 35 000 active line items (worth R44-million) of stock readily available."

Reducing downtime and running costs are ongoing issues for all transporters and it is encouraging to know your truck vendor has both the spares and the commitment to service your operation quickly and cost effectively. So how can Nissan Genuine Parts compete with the 'pirates'?

"Nissan Diesel has subsidised the prices of low volume parts with more than R10-million this year," explains Calitz. On the issue of uptime, Calitz says, "we are committed to supplying high levels of parts availability and also offering replacement units when our customers need them." 

The pirate menace
Guest speaker, Dave Scott (FleetWatch technical correspondent and described by the MC at the event as something of a 'legend' in the industry) gave a no-nonsense talk on the realities of pirate parts. Needless to say, not too many positive words were expressed on these 'infiltrators'.

The essence of his talk was the issue of quality. Genuine parts cost more because they're better and if and when they fail, the supplier is on hand to deal with the problem. Pirate parts come from 'faceless' manufacturers who don't spend millions on research and development, marketing and after sales support. What's more, they skimp on material quality and ultimately market components that are a hazard to road safety and engine life.

Scott summed it up as such: "When a truck is involved in an accident or breaks down, there are numerous hidden costs involved such as administration and insurance expenses, goods damaged in transit and unhappy customers who are waiting for their goods to be delivered. Can an operator really afford to go the cheap route and fit pirate junk?" he asked. 

Logistics and technology
Throwing another angle into the debate was Willem Cilliers of Guqula Supply Chain Services who pointed out that with South Africa now being a fully-fledged citizen of the global village, the role road transport plays in inter-modal supply chains has become increasingly significant.

On technology advancements, he said that in recent years there has been more emphasis placed on supply chain security requirements such as the electronic tracing of freight, especially in view of the number of terrorist attacks that have occurred in the USA and the UK. 

"As companies are now playing on a global field, international standards and practices such as e-documentation are also applied locally - something that is becoming all the more prevalent in South Africa."

Cilliers also contends that the advancement of technology in the freight industry has upped the technological sophistication in trucks as well.

"Trucks are more and more becoming mobile computers as customers demand quicker response times and on-site issuing of invoices and other e-documents," he said. "Customers now also require smaller delivery drops, they demand mobile applications and international trade security, as well as increased supply chain intelligence such as the location of their freight, etc.

"In the logistical side of freight transport, there are also a number of key trends emerging. We are seeing a growth in the volume of freight being transported, with multi-modal solutions between road and rail being used more and more. It is also a well-known fact that road congestion is increasingly becoming a bigger and bigger problem, especially in Gauteng, and we are likely to see more companies insisting on things such as night-time deliveries to streamline their operations," he concluded.

New dealership
Clive Penning, operations director at Magnus Trucks, used the occasion to announce that the group will open a new flagship dealership in Samrand, Gauteng at the beginning of October.

"The premises are situated alongside the N1, making it accessible and highly visible," said Penning, adding that Magnis Trucks also recently separated its Light Commercial Vehicle (LCV) and Heavy Commercial Vehicle (HCV) divisions into two separate dealerships. The group is also currently constructing a dedicated state-of-the-art truck workshop at its Pretoria premises.

Customer focus
Also speaking at the workshop was Nissan Diesel SA CEO, Hiroshi Yokofujita, who emphasised the company's vision to offer 'Ultimate Dependability' to its customers, not only via its vehicles but also its supply of spare parts.

An interesting point made by Hiroshi is that South Africa is the largest export market for Nissan Diesel (20%) and is therefore the company's number one priority in terms of support provided to international markets. No surprise then when Hiroshi emphasised the company's 'customer-driven' philosophy. "We need to thoroughly and completely understand customer needs and then provide them with services and products that fit their businesses."

Hiroshi also gave out a teaser of a new environmentally safe, low fuel consumption truck called the Quon, which will possibly be launched in South Africa in 2006.

Long-term relationships
Management guru Professor Andy Andrews was the final speaker at the workshop and in between regaling the audience with comedy, he emphasised the need today for businesses to adopt a 'partnership mentality' and use this to cultivate long-term win-win relationships with customers and suppliers. It's all about going the extra mile. As Andrews said: "Success lies in relationships and not transactions."