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CAPITAL EQUIPMENT NEWS
JULY 2017
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since entered into a partnership with a local
national broker, Commrisk Insurance Brokers,
until the company acquires its own broker li-
cence. “Commrisk, in the interim, will provide
the insurance advice and solutions. However,
we are also in the process of upskilling our
own staff, ahead of licensing,” says Felix.
She believes that offering comprehensive
insurance solutions is the last puzzle of the
company’s drive towards being a one-stop
shop, all the way from product to financing
and insurance. “It’s important for us to offer a
one-stop shop to our customers. We are able
to understand risk, not only from a finance
perspective, but from an insurance stand-
point as well, so that we can mitigate it for
us, as well as the customer,” she says.
Key benefits
The key benefit is that, as an OEM offering
insurance solutions, Scania has better
knowledge of its trucks better than anyone
else. It also has the expertise in repairing
them. For Felix, the most important thing
is that, if there is a problem with a Scania
vehicle, the direct port of call would be
the OEM, which is a great benefit for
customers who, in most instances, have to
contend with being sent from to pillar to
post as far as claims are concerned.
“Another benefit is that for us as an OEM
to be in insurance, we can tailor make specif-
ic products to assist our customers. A lot of
times in the market you just get the general
standard motor cover that has been out there
for many years and hasn’t changed, whereas
we have looked at it differently to consider
where our customers are suffering and what
are these existing policies not covering that
we can cover,” says Felix.
Scania will also look at the aspects that
customers are claiming a lot on, and identify
where it can build value add products that do
not necessarily affect the current insurance
portfolio. “There are a couple of products that
we have developed with Commrisk and have
rolled out, such as the Windscreen Cover,
which is an embedded windscreen product.
For every Scania chassis that you buy, you
get cover limited to R15 000 per chassis
windscreen. That’s nice for our customers
because windscreens get replaced quite
regularly,” says Felix.
Considering that Scania has customers
running multi-brand fleets, and they will con-
tinue to be multi-branded, the Scania insur-
ance solution covers all truck brands. Howev-
er, in terms of repairs, only Scania trucks will
be repaired in-house. But, Felix says there
will be agreements with dedicated repairers
for other truck brands.
Key considerations
Felix reasons that Scania’s insurance is
informed by the company’s understanding
that commercial vehicle operators need to
have correct insurance in place. She argues
that commercial vehicle insurance requires
that both the insurer and the broker
understand the operational demands of
operating commercial vehicles.
“Businesses operating in the transport
industry often deploy vehicles to an especially
far-reaching and intensive degree, and need
an insurance that appreciates the unique
risks that they face,” says Felix. “Because
customers deploy their trucks on different
applications, on different roads and terrain,
as well as times of the day, it’s vital to have
correct insurance that speaks to the very
nature of those particular applications. We
have had incidences where our customers
have not been insured correctly and only
realise that once an accident has occurred.”
She reasons that Scania’s insurance solu-
tion is meant to offer truck insurance that
meets the peculiar demands of operating
commercial vehicles. Felix says as an OEM,
the company has the benefit of knowing the
specs of its trucks, where they are going to
be used, what they are going to be used for
and how many drivers are going to be on
board. “This allows us to make sure that all
areas of insurance risk are covered for the
customer,” she says.
Local fleet operators are already fast
realising the benefits of Scania insurance’s
value offering. Since the new Partner structure
was implemented in September 2015, Scania
South Africa already has about 135 customers
on its books, with 800 new Scania trucks and
about 80 used trucks already covered under
the OEM’s insurance. Felix says about 50
buses are also on Scania’s insurance books.
“We have done really well considering that
the new structure was implemented only
about two years ago,” says Felix. In future,
she expects these numbers to grow at about
10% year-on-year.
b
Belinda Felix, Insurance Manager at Scania South Africa, says the OEM’s insurance solution is
meant to offer products that meet the peculiar demands of operating commercial vehicles.
Scania’s insurance solution is
aimed at increasing uptime for
commercial vehicle operators.