The delivery by Rosenbauer of more than 10 new fire trucks fitted with Cat engines to South African airports has presented Barloworld Power, Caterpillar’s southern African dealer for Energy and Transportation, with a significant after sales opportunity.
Rosenbauer, an Austrian company, is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of firefighting equipment for fire and emergency services. With a history going back more than 145 years, Rosenbauer offers firefighters in over 100 countries a comprehensive range of vehicles and equipment.
Rosenbauer has supplied equipment for South African airports since 1983 and has shared a contract with the Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) since its establishment in 1993.
Last year Rosenbauer delivered 10 new trucks into South Africa – four 6×6 fire fighting vehicles and six 8×8 fire fighting vehicles – all fitted with C18 Cat engines which will be supported by Barloworld Power. The six 8×8 Rosenbauer vehicles were delivered to OR Tambo, Cape Town and Durban International Airports, each of which received two. The 6×6 vehicles went to George, Port Elizabeth, East London and Bloemfontein airports.
A new 6×6 vehicle was delivered to Upington airport in the Northern Cape in March 2015 and Rosenbauer will deliver two more Cat powered 8×8 fire trucks to OR Tambo International Airport in mid-2015.
Rosenbauer Europe made the decision to change to Cat power for the South African units and fire fighting vehicles powered by Cat engines are also being used at various airports across Europe.
Barloworld Power will sign a long term contract with Rosenbauer to support the engines, which includes the potential to provide replacement Cat engines in the future.
The support will be provided through Barloworld Power’s second level dealers in each of the cities where the units are based, ensuring the fast response times essential to the availability of such important vehicles in the daily operations of an airport.
“With excellent support from Barloworld Power and our dealership network, we are confident that there will be a good future relationship formed between ourselves, Rosenbauer and ACSA,” says Johan Strydom, TEPS/second level dealer coordinator at Barloworld Power.
“Future opportunities to supply new Cat engines for Rosenbauer vehicles currently in service in southern Africa fitted with engines supplied by other OEMs should not be ruled out,” he adds. “We also hope to see more new Cat-powered Rosenbauer products entering our dealership territories.”
