Transgroup Logistics, a Black Economic Empowerment company with offices in Durban, Northern Natal and Gauteng, recently took delivery of four FAW 16.240FT truck tractors and one FAW 15.180FL.
The company, with a mixed fleet, has also been approved for the purchase of a further eight FAW’s: five FAW 33.420FTs. All of the trucks have been acquired through FAW Pinetown, a full FAW sales and service branch in Durban, with the sales process expertly handled by Derrick Devraj, senior sales executive at the branch.
Owner and director of Transgroup Logistics, Kerwin Naidoo, explains that the company is currently servicing a few global brands, which will see it running the FAW trucks in and around the province and from the Durban port to Gauteng.
“We are doing local and national deliveries and these vehicles are ideal for this purpose. The trucks are all single-axle vehicles, which means they are the right choice for light container loads.
“These vehicles don’t come with computer boxes so they’re not highly technical in nature and are not difficult to maintain. We expect that downtime will be limited. Also, spares are readily available and FAW has got service dealers right through on the N3. This makes it even easier for us,” Naidoo explains.
“The most important thing for us is the aftersales service and the service intervals of the vehicles. This is our first order of FAW’s, so we are excited to see the real-world results. We hope to grow our fleet further during 2018. Once we start running and testing the FAW’s, then we will slowly increase them in the fleet.”
“I have seen a lot of FAW’s running across the borders,” he adds.
He says it’s an important fact that FAW assembles vehicles in South Africa.
“There are a number of Euro-spec vehicles in the country and, should anything break, you can wait weeks for parts to arrive. With FAW, parts are readily available -you can have them within a day or two – so downtime is limited.
“I’ve read a lot of articles on FAW supplying construction sites and all of them are working well. We currently sub-contract a portion of work and certain haulage companies are waiting for me to give them feedback on the vehicles we have purchased with FAW. I know the feedback will be positive, which will impact the branch’s bottom line positively as they will get a lot more deals coming through their doors,” he says.
