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Imagine sitting in a plush air-conditioned vehicle with soft reclining seats, generous space, power steering, GPS/GPRS systems, steering mounted controls, noise-free engines and sleek design. Chances are, the dream vehicle you just conjured up doesn't remotely resemble a commercial truck. Think 'truck' and one pictures giant gas guzzlers chugging along Indian highways with a cryptic 'Horn OK please' scrawled on the back panels. But a reality check might be in order as the traditional Indian trucking industry is slowly but surely creating 'leg room' for a new sub-segment - that of the high-end, swanky, premium truck.
So far, the basic Indian truck (politely dubbed 'low-cost' by analysts) has been a frugal vehicle mostly sold as bare chassis with customised cabins and load bodies mounted on them.
Indeed, Indian customers were not used to the concept of a fully-built vehicle (FBV) until about three years ago. Used to buying the cheapest available, buyers faced frequent maintenance issues, leading to higher overall cost. The concept of total cost of ownership or TCO (cost of the vehicle plus servicing cost estimates) was absent, and is only now gaining traction. It is predicted that as India moves towards e-tolls, wider roads and an infrastructure boom, a one-size-fits-all approach may have to be shown the door, and customised, high-end trucks could surge in demand.
Premium trucks are typically priced 10-12 per cent higher than their run-of-the-mill counterparts, providing more power, speed, hauling capabilities, operator comfort and overall performance - built to travel the distance. They target large captive users, miners, transporters and fleet operators.
With gradual shifts in preferences for these trucks, three leading commercial vehicle manufacturers, Tata Motors (with its Prima range), Ashok Leyland (with U-Truck, Boss and Captain ranges) and Daimler's BharatBenz, are going all out to modernise the Indian trucking segment - one customer, one dealership, one truck at a time. How are they doing it? And why does the premium end of the truck market warrant such differentiated treatment?
Rules of the game
The first layer of premium trucks are typically bought by customers who a) after buying a chassis, do not wish to wait two months for the body and cabin to be built, b) can make more profits by operating at slightly higher speeds, and c) want to provide their drivers with safe cabins. The second layer represents those who can pay more for better conditions (yes, long distance drivers do eat and sleep in the truck).
The high-end buyer wants a premium reception at the point of purchase and, hence,players are innovating to roll out better customer service. Tata Motors and BharatBenz have built test tracks for customers while the former even has a museum. In other words, for this customer, the purchase and post-purchase experience has to match the product.
Typically, premium trucks/FBVs entail less wait time, faster delivery, more stable vehicle performance, faster serviceability, better resale value, longer vehicle life and easier financing. They particularly find patrons in application-based professions. A premium truck allows for long driving hours - the cabin is roomy, with enhanced features, pneumatically suspended seats, adjustable steering wheel and so on. Premium trucks are well-designed, and this is important for a customer who doesn't buy a commercial vehicle for just the functional value it offers.
A different recipe
When BharatBenz set base in India in 2006, the team travelled across the country to understand the market and found surprising insights. "It took us three months to figure out why a windshield in a truck breaks even when a small pebble hits it," says a Daimler India Commercial Vehicles spokesperson. A cracked windshield, a common sight on Indian trucks, is a result of problems in the manufacturing process. Trucks travel for long distances and with high speed and heat generated, even a small pebble hitting the windshield can cause poor quality glass to crack. BharatBenz tackled the problem at source by using a multi-layer, high octane, heat-proof glass for its windshields. Air-conditioning, a passenger seat next to the driver's, bucket seats etc which were not part of the regular truck game became hygiene for BharatBenz. With 80 per cent localised production, the company currently stands at number four in the overall Indian trucking segment.
Now take Tata Motors, whose technology-rich Prima range comes fitted with the Tata FleetMan offering for data connectivity through GPS. The FleetMan box in the truck has a GPS chip and GPRS modem, enabling connectivity by transmitting location data to the Tata FleetMan server via GPRS. Similarly, the Prima's ECU (electronic control unit) connected to the FleetMan box, enables transmission of vital vehicle data (braking, fuel tank capacity, oil levels, and engine performance) to the server. For a future possibility of remote prognostics and diagnostics (which will be made available at a slight premium), the company has tied up with UK-based telematics company Microlise.
Ashok Leyland's Boss and Captain too offer electronic instrument panels to pass information about the truck to the driver (telematics). Boss also features automated manual transmission, which eliminates driver fatigue.
Beyond the purchase
It doesn't stop at offering a great product though. Special treatment needs to be doled out at every touchpoint. BharatBenz, for instance, has mapped its network of 76 dealerships with the entire highway network in India, where no location is farther than 250 km from one another and the response time to any breakdown is under four hours. "We have also achieved an 84 per cent record of putting vehicles back on the road," says the company's spokesperson. Furthermore its customer services function has been branded as ProServ, while dealerships have a 24x7 enabled workshop manned by qualified Daimler-trained engineers and equipped with high productivity tools, advanced guided diagnostics and mobile service vans. The dealerships provide a host of value-added services like rest quarters for drivers, cashless zero-depreciation insurance, full maintenance contracts, extended warranty, roadside assistance, vehicle tracking systems, driver training and express/on-site service. The average maintenance interval of Bharat
Benz trucks is around 50,000 km, resulting in fewer visits to the workshop.
Tata Motors has followed a similar strategy, revising its showroom design and standards to meet customer expectation, offering round the clock service touch-points (every 50 kms on major highways) through dedicated container workshops, mobile service vans, driver and mechanic training, and quicker service with authentic spare parts through the Tata Authorised Service Stations across the country. Some of the key services include an assistance programme on national highways called Tata Alert, triple benefit insurance, priority desks for Prima customers at the call centre, and a loyalty programme called Tata Delight (for retail customers) and Tata Emperor (for large key customers). For instance, Tata Emperor member Siddhi Vinayak Logistics in Mumbai recently redeemed its points for a new Land Rover FreeLander.
Furthermore, Tata Motors recently introduced a campaign under Tata Genuine Parts against the sale of spurious spare parts. As part of this, it conducted nationwide raids to expose sales of duplicate spares. The enforcement team, including the IPR enforcement, copyrights protection agencies, Tata Motors' TGP team and the legal team, works to identify both manufacturing units and selling outlets of counterfeit products across cities.
In Ashok Leyland's case, premium truck launches led to a simultaneous upgrade of its 200 branded parts stores and 500 dealer outlets and authorised service centres, where each dealership has to comply with a 15-point checklist to be eligible to retail these trucks. "Traditionally, trucks are not purchased from the dealer outlet - sales executives complete transactions at customer premises. But this is changing, particularly in the smaller range," says Vinod K Dasari, MD, Ashok Leyland. Customers are increasingly walking into showrooms for a first-hand look at vehicles. Therefore, dealerships have built showrooms or external display pavilions. Dealerships also offer demo vehicles.
It is interesting to note that customers have opted for low-cost trucks in the past due to the difficulty in accident repairs of cabins supplied by manufacturers, leading them to replace these instead, pushing up cost of ownership. "Ashok Leyland opened up the first cabin repair facility for trucks," says Dasari, "and 16 of these are either operational or under advanced stages of construction across India." These facilities enable speedy, inexpensive repair of cabins rather than replacement, and put damaged trucks back on road in 72 hours. Ashok Leyland has also re-worked its order fulfillment process: premium trucks are built-to-order and transported to dealers on tractor-trailers. Customers are assured of receiving mint-fresh trucks with zero km on the odometer.
Lasting relationships
A great product and after-sales strategy would bomb if not supported by the right people. Tata Motors has mitigated all such risks with the appointment of 48 'Dronas' or specialist trainers for sales teams. There is a LEAP (Learn and Engage for Augmenting Profitability) programme organised for channel partners (dealership teams), where plant visits, financial and operations management etc are coordinated. "So far, six programmes have been completed at different plant locations covering over 120 dealer principals," says R Ramakrishnan, senior vice-president, commercial vehicles, Tata Motors.
Ashok Leyland's customer engagement process, too, has undergone transformation over the last two years. Today, sales executives have the knowhow to make specific vehicle recommendations based on a customer's requirements "They're not making a sale; they're facilitating an appropriate choice," says Dasari. The sales teams are equipped with tablet computers to facilitate these tasks.
At BharatBenz, mechanics have to undergo three levels of training classified as basic, advanced and expert. So far, over 1,700 mechanics have been trained for medium and heavy duty trucks at the Oragadam (Chennai) training facility. Every dealership has an online technical information platform called Aftersales Centrl, which is a touch-enabled, animated, multi-lingual single interface system that provides information on all aggregates used in BharatBenz trucks.
Here too, sales personnel don't shy away from making best-fit truck recommendations. It is important to understand that customers for premium and value trucks are not necessarily different, but they do have vastly different needs. With advancements like those in the premium end of the spectrum, players are confident these applications will eventually percolate to the lowest end too, with time and market maturity.
Premium truck makers are working on features that could be game changers in the near future, including:
* Remote diagnostics: Taking care of issues on the go, reducing overall vehicle downtime and enhancing both, driver and operator control is done by systems being programmed with a set of instructions. For example, if the oil level in the tank depletes faster than it actually should, the system sends out an alert via the GPS system informing the operator so he can communicate with the driver to have the vehicle checked for its leakages etc.
* Remote prognostics: Under prognostics, an operator identifies issues much before an actual breakdown, via pre-programmed instructions to the system. For example, early signs of brake pad wear-and-tear can be identified, helping the operator understand the timeline to replace these. Likewise, the truck's maneouvering on roads at high speeds can be monitored for early signs of suspension wear-out, thereby prompting the fleet owner to understand replacement cycles.
* Remote immobiliser: CVs fitted with these protect vehicles even if they get stolen. If a thief switches the engine off, he will not be able to start it again. A coded cellphone signal will tell the unit (control box fitted to the truck incorporates a miniature cellphone, a microprocessor and memory, and a GPS satellite positioning receiver) to block the vehicle's engine management system.
* Advance driver assistance systems: These include adaptive cruise controls, autonomous emergency braking and other active safety systems.
Based on inputs from Tata Motors
