South Africa’s commercial vehicle market remains highly competitive, with truck manufacturers increasingly judged not only on product quality but also on the strength of their dealer networks, aftersales support and long-term customer relationships. Within this context, Hino South Africa has reaffirmed its leadership credentials by topping two of the industry’s most respected independent customer and dealer satisfaction surveys.

At the recent annual National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) awards ceremony held in Johannesburg, Hino once again emerged as the only truck manufacturer to receive a Platinum Dealer Satisfaction Index (DSI) Award (for the sixth consecutive year), while also maintaining its leading position in the latest Datatrack customer satisfaction survey.

Depth of data defines the DSI survey
The 2026 survey marked the 30th anniversary of the independently researched DSI, conducted by Lightstone on behalf of NADA. The survey provides an objective measure of the relationship between vehicle manufacturers and their dealer networks.

Manufacturers were assessed by their dealers across three key areas:

• Dealer friendly – 20%

• Investor friendly – 40%

• Customer friendly – 40%

From humble beginnings in 1996, when seven manufacturers participated, this year’s NADA survey attracted responses from dealers representing 36 brands. In the truck and bus sector alone, 181 dealer responses were received, representing approximately 80% of South Africa’s truck and bus dealer network.

“We are delighted that Hino has not only collected a Platinum Award in NADA’s DSI survey, but the fact that it was for the sixth successive year shows consistency in our dealings with the dealer network,” said Anton Falck, vice president of Hino South Africa.

“We sincerely believe that Staff satisfaction and Dealer satisfaction are important drivers towards Customer satisfaction and the continued success of our business and brand in South Africa. We thank our dealers for confirming that we are on the right track and continue to Kaizen the areas that can be improved,” he added.

Datatrack dominance continues
Hino’s strong dealer relationships have been matched by equally impressive customer satisfaction results. The manufacturer topped the combined rankings in the second quarter 2026 Datatrack survey, which measures transport operators’ satisfaction across 14 truck brands sold in South Africa.

Hino achieved an overall combined score of 99.23, comfortably ahead of the second-placed manufacturer on 97.62. The result marks the 13th consecutive quarter – dating back to the first quarter of 2023 – that Hino has occupied the number one position overall. The company also led all three individual categories:

• Sales – 99.32

• Service – 99.80

• Parts – 98.56

“We are proud to have achieved even better than our target of 95 in each of the categories, which underlines the ongoing support we provide to our customers in line with Hino’s international strategy of Total Support, which is built on strong working relationships with all in the value chain,” explained Falck.

The return to the top position in the Parts category follows a temporary logistics transition as Hino South Africa shifted its replacement parts supply chain from Hino Motors Europe in Belgium to Hino Motors in Japan.

“This allowed us to strengthen our logistics capabilities, while identifying critical stock requirements and increasing our stock holding by an additional month to support long-term supply stability. These actions have placed us in a stronger position to achieve our target allocation fill rate of 96%.” Falck concluded.

Editor’s comment: Independent dealer and customer satisfaction surveys carry significant weight in the trucking industry because they reflect the day-to-day ownership experience rather than marketing claims. Hino’s sustained performance across both the NADA Dealer Satisfaction Index and Datatrack surveys suggests that consistent investment in dealer partnerships, aftersales support and parts availability remains a competitive differentiator in South Africa’s commercial vehicle market. Congratulations Hino SA!

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