As truck purchasing goes onto the back burner during a crisis, workshops will probably be servicing older trucks, as operators run them out longer than they normally would. Holding on to trucks a little longer brings different issues for the workshop.
Scania is reaching out to owners and operators of its older trucks to encourage them to visit a Scania workshop for a special lube service and health check. The new Scania Prime programme aims to reach out to the close to 10,000 Scania trucks on the road that are five-years-old or older, and which may not be operating under one of Scania’s successful maintenance contracts.
“Australia is such a unique country in the trucking world, vehicles just live on,: says Patrik Tharna, Scania National Aftersales Manager. “Some of these older Scanias, they just won’t die. A lot have been purchased second hand, so we don’t necessarily have a relationship with these customers.
“To me, part of the Scania experience is the Scania workshop experience. We want to reach out to all of those operators with Scanias, so they can share the Scania experience. As a welcome back we do a lube service, with an oil change, filters and a general health check. We are doing it cheap, so they will be excited to come and see us.
“If they like the experience, or if we find something needs to be done, we will be offering a 20 per cent discount if they choose to come back. It’s a cal to arms, with good news for old friends.”
When it comes to servicing older trucks, the trucks most likely to take Scania up on this offer will probably date from the the mid-nineties or newer. Many of them are still likely to be doing quite a few kilometres each year and needing regular servicing.
The Prime offer will begin in the company owned Scania dealerships. Prime is simply basic maintenance and does not have the inclusions included in the many Repair and Maintenance contracts Scania currently has with their new truck customers.
“Whatever you do, you want to maintain the truck,” says Patrik. “You want to give it good maintenance to extend the life of the vehicle and ensure good uptime. Having this maintenance offer under Scania Prime, offers that to the customer. They can extend the life of the truck as long as they can, without tying themselves to the repair commitments of an R&M contract.”
This will be a long term strategy, with the intention of rolling the process out to Scania agents, outside of the company-owned dealerships.
The charge for the initial visit has been kept low, barely covering the cost of the new lube, to give the owners of older Scanias the chance to see for themselves, just how servicing older trucks with Scania works. If they like it they can come back and get discounted (20 per cent) work done or sign up for a more regular schedule.
“At the moment, everyone is thinking about cashflow,” says Patrik. “If you can extend the life of your vehicle, then that’s fantastic. Doing the right basic maintenance will definitely help. Then preventative items may need to be replaced. We have recommendations, depending on the operation type, about when components need to be replaced and we would love to provide advice on that as well.”
