SCANIA DOES MASSIVE BUSINESS ON THE FIRST TWO DAYS OF THE JOHANNESBURG INTERNATIONAL MOTOR SHOW
Scania sold a huge quantity of trucks, as well as one of the first examples of it sophisticated new bus, known as the Scania Touring, on the first two days of the 2013 Johannesburg International Motor Show. Gideon de Swardt, Public Relations Officer for Scania in South Africa, relates the story of selling the Scania Touring, a very unusual bus entirely of Swedish origin.
“We were launching this bus on the show, an important example for our model line-up, but the first 10 we imported actually ended up being sold prior to the show. Obviously, with a deal of that magnitude we could not delay the sales, but we managed to hire one of the buses from a customer for the show duration.
“On the very first day of the show we sold this example straight off the stand! I’ve been in the truck business for many years and this is the first time this has happened.
“Then on that same day, the Thursday VIP preview day, a cross-border customer placed a double-digit order for some very specialised truck-tractors, to be used mainly in the mining industry. I can’t quote figures, but the order was substantial.
“On the second day we sold a further eight vehicles, comprising various models. One of the customers flew in a private aircraft from Louis Trichardt, landed at Rand Airport, arrived at the show and straight away purchased the Scania Streamline, our latest edition to the range, launched in Europe only a few months ago. This is one of our flagship truck modesl.
“We have three of them on our stand. The Steamline name is related to air-management. Our trucks are renowned for air management and our fuel consumption is outstanding.
“We also do driver training for our customers, and we go further, doing driver-trainer training, so that our larger customers can have their own in-house driver trainer. Technology changes at a rapid rate, and truck drivers need to be specialised, almost like you have aircraft pilots that are rated on a particular type of aircraft.
“All of this, as well as our maintenance programmes which can also include maintenance to our customers’ trailers, which is very unusual in the industry, fits in with our philosophy of ‘There is a Better Way.’
“ We truly are the one-stop-shop Truck manufacturer represented in South Africa.”
