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CAPITAL EQUIPMENT NEWS
JULY 2017
28
W
hen the business requires a com-
mercial vehicle insurance solution,
it is of utmost significance to con-
sult with the right insurer to ensure that the
business gets the optimum level of vehicle
cover. For a transport business, a day, or even
an hour of standing time due to delays in pro-
cessing insurance claims, is out of question.
Such downtime has a snowball effect, ac-
cording to Belinda Felix, Insurance Manager
at Scania South Africa, who says that when
a truck is involved in an accident, “you are
not only crashing metal, it’s the business and
people behind it who suffer the most”.
Felix says every hour the truck is not
operating, customers are losing money, and
when that happens, there is a high chance
that they might not be able to pay back their
financing premiums. “More importantly,
downtime means that they may not be able to
fulfil their contractual obligations, which may
lead to termination of contracts,” says Felix.
With that in mind, Scania South Africa
has placed major focus on its insurance
offering to be able to provide comprehensive,
effective and tailor-made insurance products
that are set to close the gaps in the existing
conventional insurance packages already in
the market.
Changing strategy
Scania has always had an insurance
solution as part of its global finance
and insurance strategy. But, previously
the truck maker used to partner up with
insurance brokers and let them run with
the business. For the past two and half
years, following the arrival of Felix, the
company has worked a lot closer with the
brokers and insurers.
Felix is an insurance guru who has done
it all in this industry for the past 17 years
of her career. She has been involved in
transport, and especially truck insurance,
since 2007. She joined Scania some two
and half years ago, initially as an insurance
coordinator. With time, the company saw
value in bringing the insurance business in-
house, moving away from just passing on the
leads to brokers, and Felix was subsequently
appointed manager of the insurance division.
The process to bring insurance in-house
was set in motion in September 2015 when
Scania South Africa signed new agreements
with new insurance brokers. The OEM has
since tied in all the necessary networks includ-
ing insurers, aftersales, brokers and repairers.
To further improve customer experience,
Scania South Africa has since applied for its
own broker licence, and Felix expects that by
the start of 2018, the company will have its
own brokerage licence that will allow it, to-
gether with insurers, to build unique Scania
products that are not currently available on
the market. “We will, as an OEM, be able
to subsidise, take risk-sharing and make the
product unique to the transport industry,”
says Felix.
In the meantime, Scania South Africa has
Businesses operating in the transport industry have unique needs and are often confronted by
some rather unique threats and risks. To meet the specialised requirements for commercial vehicle
operators, Scania is redefining the insurance landscape with a set of products designed to plug the
gaps in existing conventional insurance packages, writes
Munesu Shoko.
REDEFINING
FLEET INSURANCE
INSURANCE