• At the Tokyo Motor Show: (left to right) Leslie Long, Hino SA senior manager – marketing, demand and product planning; Koichi Ojima, executive vice president of Hino Motors Limited, and Ernie Trautmann, Hino SA vice-president. Picture: HINO SA

  • Hino SA says its sales were buoyed by additional models in its 300 Series range. Picture: QUICKPIC

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THE Hino Total Support programme, with its self-explanatory slogan of becoming a Partner of the Customer, which was rolled out globally two years ago by the Japanese truck manufacturer, was the main driver for the success enjoyed by Hino SA in 2015, according to the company’s vice-president Ernie Trautmann.

"We are delighted at the enthusiastic manner in which our staff and dealers have embraced this holistic programme which encourages the building of trust and meaningful relationships between Hino Japan, Hino SA, dealers and customers," said Trautmann.

Sales in 2015 hit an all-time high of 4,094 units in a year in which the overall local truck and bus market fell by 3%. Hino also had record parts sales in 2015.

"We are particularly proud that we did not change our 2015 sales target during the year and stuck to the forecast set in October 2014 despite the slowdown in the market. This allowed us to increase our share of the total market from 12.2% in 2014 to 13.4% last year."

The company’s sales benefited from the introduction of more models in the popular 300 Series range, including more automatic and crew cab models.

"We also put a big focus on improving the parts supply to and from dealers. We continued our strategy of ongoing evaluation and comparison of our parts pricing with that of competitors and repositioned the prices on a number of major items. The sales volume of these repositioned parts rose by 17%. This is an ongoing process."

He is particularly proud of the consistency Hino has shown in the quarterly Scott Byers Comparative Customer Satisfaction Monitor (CCSM) where the brand has held the number one position in the combined index of sales, parts and service for the past five quarters.

"Our performance in the CCSM is the best way of showing that our Hino Total Support programme is paying dividends. We are also pleased that the rating of our company in terms of its relationship with its dealers, revealed in the latest National Automobile Dealers’ Association (NADA) survey, showed a marked improvement," said Trautmann. "Hino SA received the Most Improved Award as well as a Gold Certificate for achieving a score of more than 75%. Hino’s rating of 81.8% was an improvement of 8.9% over the 2014 figure when it was awarded a Silver Certificate with a score of 72.9%. It was second in the Commercial Category, 0.7% behind the first placed manufacturer."

"The objective for Hino and its dealers is to stay positive this year, which is starting in an environment of doom and gloom. We believe our customers already know they are benefiting significantly from the Hino Total Support programme, driven by our pledge to stick to our promises, goals and objectives which is a good start.

"We will continue to work closely with Hino Motors in Japan and our dealers to develop Vision 2020 which was announced last year as our ambitious strategy to become the number one truck brand in SA by 2020. The key here is building trust between all parties involved so that we have a unified front in tackling our challenges."

Hino SA currently has 65 dealers, 19 of them exclusive truck facilities, and is looking to strengthen the existing network rather than add more outlets. The company has already plugged gaps in certain areas with dealers able to provide parts and service back-up which is important as it increases its thrust into the extra-heavy truck market with long-haul operators a prime target.

A new initiative for the dealers will be the introduction of a learnership programme to encourage younger people to enter the truck retailing business. It will be a one-year development programme with a focus on selling and is a joint venture between Hino SA and dealers.

A new strategy in after-sales will be monitoring the cause of Vehicle Off Road cases at the dealers so as to be able to develop countermeasures to minimise downtime for customers.

The company will continue with its programme of holding stock of popular bus models converted from truck chassis which proved a success in 2015. During the year about 200 truck chassis were converted into buses, mainly of the commuter variety.

The company says there will be closer co-operation this year between itself, its dealers and Toyota Financial Services (TFS) in providing customers with truck finance and optional service and maintenance plans. It says the number of buyers using TFS increased rapidly and in December TFS financed 48% of its sales versus a target of 20%.

Trautmann said the company’s forecast for the total truck sales market in 2016 is 28,000 units, which is lower than some other predictions in the industry. A worrying factor is the number of 2016 sales which appear to have been pulled forward into 2015 probably due to forecasted high price increases this year.