Capital Equipment News April-May 2020

All of Premier Logistics’ Scania trucks are on R&M contracts

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FLEET OF ABOUT 240 TRUCKS

South African-based Premier Logistics Solutions runs a fleet of about 240 trucks across its four business divisions

All of Premier Logistics Solutions’ 129 Scania trucks have an existing repair and maintenance contract, which runs until the replacement cycle of 3 years/600 000 km intervals

Premier Logistics’ average Scania truck availability is at 99%, which bodes well for its uptime-driven business

Scania’s R&M contracts are recognised by all of its wholly- owned dealerships and independent workshops across southern Africa. This means one account for the customer, managed centrally, allowing flexibility if operations or routes change

Company’s strategy Auby tells Capital Equipment News that taking an R&M contract with every truck purchase has always been part of the company’s model. He reiterates that “servicing vehicles is not our core business; logistics is”. “Part of our business strategy is to have all our vehicles on R&M contracts. When the vehicles are due for service, we send them in and they get serviced. In case of a breakdown, Scania’s branch network is a phone call away and they sort out any

All of Premier Logistics Solutions’ 129 Scania trucks have an existing repair and maintenance (R&M) contract, which runs until the replacement cycle of 3 years/600 000 km. Auby is of the view that R&M contracts are enjoying huge market penetration these days, mainly because transport operators are realising that in-house workshops are an overhead that they can do without, especially given that many are ill-equipped to handle the complexity of modern trucks, particularly their electronic systems.

problems quite quickly to get our mission- critical assets back on the road with minimum downtime,” says Auby. Explaining some of the reasons for this approach, Auby says previously the company had its own workshop for in-house servicing and “had double the amount of staff and double the amount of issues”. He says the beauty of Scania R&M contracts is that they give the fleet owner a known, monthly cost that is fixed (more or less) for the contract period, based on kilometres travelled.

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