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August 2005 |
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The buses sold and recorded in NAAMSA sales under the ERF name have, in fact, been BMC buses. BMC trucks have now arrived in South Africa.
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For all those ERF owners out there who might be wondering whether or not the life of their vehicles is somewhat limited given the fact the ERF trucks are no longer marketed in this country, the good news is that the people at ERF South Africa, a division of Busaf, are actively ensuring that no ERF owner will be left in the lurch when it comes to parts and service.
ERF South Africa, as the local support arm for ERF UK - which is wholly owned by MAN Nutzfahrzeuge AG - has set up three branches to cater to ERF owners.
One, providing a full spares and service facility including a 24 hour stand-by offering, is situated in the old Mack premises at Fishers Hill in Gauteng. The second, a parts outlet with outsourced service arrangements is in Pinetown and the third outlet has just been opened in Montague Gardens in Cape Town. It too offers a full spares service with an outsourced servicing arrangement in place.
According to Manie Wiese, GM of ERF SA, a combined stock holding of around R5,8-million is held between the three outlets - not small change in anyone's language. So although ERF trucks are no longer available new in SA, the estimated over 2 000 that are still operating on the roads can run on for many years to come.
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BMC
Pro 827E, Professional |
While on the point of ERF, it was interesting for us - as truck rather than bus people - to hear that the buses sold over the past two years which have been recorded in NAAMSA sales figures as ERFs are not ERFs at all. They are, in fact, BMC vehicles from out of Turkey.
"BMC is well know in the bus market with us having been involved for the past 18 months during which time we've sold around 70 vehicles to grab a 5% share of the market," Nico Snyman, business development manager of BMC in southern Africa tells us - which brings us to the next interesting point, namely, that the intention of the folk at Busaf is to now introduce BMC trucks into South Africa.
Although talks regarding the organisational structure are still being finalized, it is likely that we will see a new division of Busaf emerge to undertake this activity - probably named BMC South Africa or something like that.
"We've already had four models homologated one of which is going into the SA Breweries stable for testing over a three month period. We've also secured a 22 truck order under a Government tender so although it's early days, we've got off to a good start," says Snyman, adding that the marketing philosophy of the company will be to "give the customer what he wants not what we can supply".
Think about that one! It's a tall order philosophy which kind of embraces a spec-for-customer, American type modus operandi. Has BMC got the wherewithal to match that? Time will tell but in the meantime, South Africa has another truck marque in the market. It slipped in quietly with no fanfare but it's here. And it's from Turkey!
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BMC
Pro 620G, Professional |
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