
Mozambique as a truck market has matured and is moving away from used left-hand drive American trucks to new right hand-drive trucks. So says Choice Diesel Mozambique’s managing director, Wayne Greenwood, who has been trading in that country since 2002 and has gained first-hand experience of the challenges facing operators in what is a rapidly developing market.
In August this year, Choice Diesel Mozambique became the first and only independent sales and service dealer of FAW trucks in Mozambique. The company started its journey in Mozambique trading in second hand trucks. However, clients’ needs have driven the company to expand significantly and it offerings now include numerous on and off highway solutions ranging from trucks and trailers to industrial machines serving materials handling, construction, mining and agricultural users.
Choice Diesel has a complete regional footprint with eight workshop sites in sub-Saharan Africa. Its biggest sites to service and support its clients are in Maputo and Beira. It also boasts one of the largest bases of technical people in Mozambique. “We believe in the importance of the after-sales side of the truck business. Mozambique today is a multi-brand truck market and our clients are price-sensitive,” says Greenwood.
On the decision to partner with FAW he says: “We did our homework and looked globally at how best to source quality, affordable trucks for Southern Africa. We wanted to see which was the best truck supplier in this sector of our business in terms of product range, affordability product, parts supply and after-sales support. FAW SA emerged as the winner in this regard,” he says.
Business got off to a great start with Choice Diesel already having signing a number of deals. The first was for 44 FAW 33.420FT truck tractors to long-standing customer, Strauss Logistics, before the dealership had even officially joined the FAW network.
Selling the full FAW vehicle range, this partnership with Choice Diesel is evidence of the continued growth and expansion of the FAW brand in Southern Africa.