Hino South Africa has established a partnership with Standard Bank Fleet Management to provide comprehensive, price-competitive and cost-effective service and maintenance plans for its truck customers. The two partners have been developing their relationship since 2018 and the results are the new programmes now being offered to buyers of new Hino trucks.
“We at Hino South Africa are continuously looking at ways in which we can enhance the ownership experience for our customers. This is in line with Hino Motors Limited’s international strategy of Total Support for the operators of our products,” says Pieter Klerck, General Manager Hino SA.
“We first re-evaluated our pre-2018 service and maintenance programmes. Next, we conducted extensive investigations into the after-sales product offerings of our competitors and the expectations of our customers to ensure we ticked all the boxes with our new products. We believe that Standard Bank Fleet, which is a digitally-driven organisation, is the ideal partner for Hino,” he adds.
Commenting on this partnership, Linda Khambule, Head of OEM and Alliances at Standard Bank Fleet, says they have implemented a digital business platform that allows for significant customer and operational customisation and flexibility, with significant technological investment having taken place in the preceding three years. “This allows for the introduction of innovative new services and solutions to cater for our clients evolving needs in these times of change,” he says.
Commenting further on the need for such an offering, Klerk says the importance of efficient cost control is even more pertinent nowadays as the hard-hit transport industry recovers from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We believe our service and maintenance plans, together with the reliability, durability and competitive life costs of our vehicles will further enhance the appeal of the Hino product range in South Africa.”
The partners say an important factor in developing these new programmes was to make them user friendly in all aspects, from preparing quotes and contracts to settling claims.
“For instance, the programmes can be bought up front by a customer and financed with the truck or they can be based on a cost per kilometre covered each month. Another option is that the customer can be billed for average distance covered with the programmes being restructured if the distance is less or greater than the expected average. Customers can also choose to negotiate the length of the contract in terms of either time – up to a maximum of 60 months – or a kilometre limit depending on the type of Hino truck being used.” explains Khambule.
The new Hino programmes are all digitally managed in real-time. This includes the standard fitment of telematics to all participating trucks with the benefits of monthly reporting and analytics on the vehicle and driver behaviour as well as vehicle tracking. Standard Bank works with all the major tracking companies and the system can interact with all telematics solutions.
Customers can make use of any franchised Hino dealer in South Africa and will have the peace of mind of knowing that only genuine parts will be fitted and that the work is undertaken by qualified technicians.
“From Hino’s side, the new service and maintenance systems are fully integrated into the Toyota-One portal which connects our dealers and the Hino head office, making the operation seamless,” says Klerck.
Both Hino and Standard Bank Fleet Management have dedicated people working on the service and maintenance plans. The bank’s technical team in its call centre have workbench experience and Hino truck knowledge so are able to make decisions when queries arise, such as brake linings wearing out before the end of expected life.
Currently the programmes are available to buyers of new Hino trucks in South Africa and will be rolled out into neighbouring countries within the next few months. “There are plans to extend the offering in the future to include used Hino trucks with a full-service history and will subsequently lead to a Hino-backed buy-back programme,” says Klerk.
In FleetWatch’s opinion, this is a great new offering given that timeous and regular serving and maintenance is critical to maximising cost effective and safe transport. Taking this major discipline – and yes, it is a discipline – out of the fleet owner’s hands is one more way of allowing the transporter to concentrate on enhancing and improving other aspects of his business. It’s the right stuff.
