Construction World June 2017

MARKETPLACE

Getting vehicles BACK ON THE ROAD, FAST For Scania, repair and maintenance is an integral part of a productive relationship with the customer

We have 95% parts availability from the distributor warehouse in Nasrec, Johannesburg. We are proud of the logistical setup that we have. Any part that is available in the country will be dispatched to the customer within hours. If a part is not available in the country, it will be air freighted to South Africa,” says Van der Westhuizen. Marrying breakdowns with information Technology allows for the monitoring of the vital statistics of vehicles, remotely communicating this data to a central fleet management system. “We have two packages for Scania Fleet Management products: a monitoring and control package. The monitoring package (an on- board control unit) is standard on all vehicles and comes at no addi-

Services offered by Scania South Africa depends on the customer as it is acutely customer solution focused. “It depends on the solution the customer needs – it can range from a maintenance contract to a full repair and maintenance contract,” says Theunes van der Westhuizen, General Manager: Retail. “In addition to servicing or repairs at service and it aims to take over the logistics of such a repair process to enable the customer to get on with running their business. This is good news for construction contractors whose vehicles often work remotely and in challenging conditions.

tional cost. It provides basic key data on indicators such as kilometres driven, fuel usage, harsh braking, periods of idling and driver performance. With the control package, customers get full fleet management. They can track and monitor their fleet from any computer or mobile device and get detailed information about vital aspects of vehicle operation. Importantly, it can provide insight into driver behaviour and other important aspects that impact cost and performance. Scania Assistance Software is linked to the Sca- nia dealer system. “When a customer phones the dedicated Scania call centre and provides the chas- sis or registration number, we can tell whether the vehicle is still under warranty and has a repair and maintenance contract. The system sends a signal to the vehicle to retrieve its last known location as well as any warning lamps or fault codes appearing on the instrument cluster. This is channelled back into the assistance software. The entire process from when the breakdown is logged, a technician is

centres, we are able to do on-site servicing using the customer’s facility, but our own technicians, or we can use our technicians with the customer’s technicians. The overriding consideration for Scania’s repair processes, is whether it will add value (uptime – which is a key aspect for Scania) for the customer,” he says. A centralised division The repair and maintenance division, or contracts division, is centralised – whether vehicles operate in South or Southern Africa. It is based at the Scania head office in Aeroton, south of Johannesburg. “Any contract, any management of this contract, any cost coming via this contract, is managed by this centralised division,” explains Van der Westhuizen. When a breakdown happens, rather than the

operator trying to negotiate directly with the local dealer, this is done centrally by this division. “A work order bill is opened by the workshop, it is ascertained whether the vehicle is under contract, ex- clusion and inclusions are checked for, and a job card is opened. The system does certain vetting of the type of repairs to determine if they are within the contract conditions. If there are rejections, we have a team to ensure that this is 100% correct,” says Van der Westhuizen of the initial process. “Because the repair and maintenance programme is broken down into main groups, we can specify what the vehicle is

dispatched, when he arrives, and what is wrong with the vehicle, is captured. Response time can me measured as far as breakdowns are concerned – as it is important to get the vehicle back on the road as quickly and efficiently as possible,” says Van der Westhuizen. Breakdown services When a breakdown is logged, Scania will determine – depending on what type of breakdown it is and if it can be repaired, or whether it must be towed to the nearest workshop. “Everything is done to ensure that we use the most effective way to get the vehicle back on the road as swiftly as possible. “When a breakdown is logged and given that it has our fleet management product, the system automatically requests the fault codes. This gives technical experts a clearer picture of what may be wrong when they reach the breakdown site. It is obviously better to solve the problem first time around if the repair allows it,” Van der Westhuizen concludes. 

covered for.” The team

The same team that handles the repair and maintenance contracts, also handles the processing of warranty claims. “This makes the process more efficient as the process is not disjointed,” maintains Van der Weshuizen. “The availability of parts is one of the key elements of our offering.

LEFT: Theunes van der Westhuizen, Scania South Africa’s General Manager: Retail says that the main aim of Scania’s repair and maintenance offering is to get the vehicle back on the road as fast as possible as uptime is key. RIGHT: An example of a monitoring report.

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CONSTRUCTION WORLD JUNE 2017