Leyland service centre in Amritsar

Ashok Leyland has started its service improvement centre in Amritsar.

Inaugurating the inaugural training session of mechanics, the company's head of the northern region, D C Updhyay, said the company wanted to widen its service network, and therefore provide greater customer satisfaction along the corridor between Amritsar and Mumbai.

In addition to increasing the quality and number of mechanics/service points, Ashok Leyland will also ply 24-hour help line jeeps every 200 km to give service support. The company plans to launch a 24-hour call centre for drivers.

He said mechanic training sessions would be conducted Tarn Taran, Jeera and Bhatinda. The company planned to cover the whole state, he added.

Upadhyay told Business Standard that the multi axel vehicle of Ashok Leyland,2516H was highly fuel efficient and could save about Rs 12,000 per month on account of diesel alone.

"It was only because of the inadequate after sales service in Punjab that the company was losing its market. By training the local mechanics about the machinery of the truck we expect to increase our market share three times from existing 13% to 40% by the end of the year", said Upadhyay.

Highlighting the need for improved service and increased network, D.C. Upadhyay, pointed out that "as a customer driven company, Leyland complements its products to improve the operating economics of our customers. Reinforcing the service network is one more step towards delivering increased customer value".

Ashok Leyland's initiative is spurred by the increasing importance of Amritsar, Ludhiana and Jalandhar in the industrial map.

Materials like woolens, hosiery, cycle parts, auto parts, hand tools, hardware, sports goods etc are transported from Punjab to various parts of the country as also exported.

As part of its programme, twelve mechanics from Amritsar and Jalandhar will be trained by an instructor from Ashok Leyland over a period of two days. The mechanics will be put through an extensive session involving identification and assembly of various parts of the gearbox and the engine.

The company has five dealers with eight branches in the state. The company is all set to launch a drivers training programme in Delhi in a joint venture with the Delhi government. This would help the drivers in the north to maintain and drive the trucks at the optimum cost.