Hino SA has ambitious plans for 2019 and the future
Hino South Africa, which enjoyed a very successful 2018 in terms of vehicle and parts sales as well as customer and dealer satisfaction ratings, laid out ambitious plans for 2019.
The company has identified a number of focus areas as it gears up to expand its operations and market share in a rapidly changing environment in the local and international truck markets.
One of the earliest developments is the restructuring of Hino SA which will include the establishment of a dedicated department to look after the extra-heavy-commercial segment of the market, which is showing significant growth and is vital for future sales expansion. It is already a sizeable market segment that continued to show strong growth in 2018.
Another development will be the introduction of Hinomatics, a locally-developed telematics system. It has been tested on Hino’s demo trucks as well as by several customers for two years and will be released later this year. A basic system will be fitted to certain Hino models and then it can be customised to suit specific customer requirements.
Customers can also look forward to price-competitive service and maintenance plans to customers, particularly those operating 300 and 500 series Hino trucks.
Hino Financial Services will become an accredited finance house and not a subdivision of Toyota Financial Services, as is the situation currently.
There are two training programmes in the works – one to recruit students for a year-long learnership as a truck sales executive in 2020; the other is an accredited supply chain management course for select employees and dealers.
Hino is concentrating on adding more standard safety and driver-support features to its trucks.
There is also a wide range of customised accessories for Dyna light trucks is being made available.
By 2025 Hino plans to have four alternative fuel platforms for its trucks – diesel-electric hybrids, plug-in hybrids, pure electric power, and hydrogen fuel cells. Relevant models will be considered for introduction in South Africa.
Customers will no doubt welcome the introduction of a buy-back programme, made possible by Hinomatics, which will enable dealers to monitor the usage of the buy-backs so they can be sold as used trucks with confidence.
Meanwhile strategies are in place to lift Hino SA’s BBBEE rating from its current Level 7 to Level 4 by 2021, with dealers being assisted to improve their ratings too.
