Innovation is what helps to drive South Africa’s automotive sector – and what better place to have your pioneering aftermarket products showcased than at this year’s TruckX and FleetX events at Kyalami.
The inaugural TruckX and FleetX Product Excellence Awards have been conceived to celebrate outstanding design, engineering and innovation in aftermarket products intended for South Africa’s automotive sector, whether commercial vehicles or passenger cars.
Whether you manufacture, import or distribute any product used by members of South Africa’s aftermarket, be sure to enter it in the competition – you could end up winning big at the country’s premier, co-located events for the trucking and fleet industries.
The TruckX and FleetX Product Excellence Awards have been designed to showcase the best of the best in a pride-of-place exhibit at the two-day event, which will be held on July 11 and 12 at the Kyalami International Conference Centre and Racetrack.
From small beginnings as a conference-only event which drew about 250 delegates in 2014, the co-located TruckX and FleetX platforms have grown to become one of the country’s premier industry showcases for the commercial transport, logistics, parcel delivery, materials handling and fleet sectors, drawing about 2 180 visitors last year to Kyalami.
While the expos have been lauded for providing industry representatives across the target sectors with relevant new product information as well as excellent business-to-business networking opportunities, the associated conferences have drawn praise for the market insights they facilitate through a high-powered line-up of speakers.
Brand Pretorius, former CEO of McCarthy Retail and Tony Smallwood, executive head of IoT Solutions at Vodacom SA, delivered keynote addresses at last year’s event, while other speakers included Craig Parker, Head of Mobility at Frost & Sullivan Africa; Adrian Velaers, Senior Technical Advisor at Sasol; Hein Jordt, MD of Ctrack South Africa and Adrian Van Tonder, Chairman of South Africa’s Road Traffic Management System (RTMS).
Interactive events at the venue included test drives of vehicles around Kyalami’s 1,1km handling track – which will again be used this year by the South African Parcel Express Association (SAPEA) to stage a driving skills competition – as well as numerous vehicle and product launches and demonstrations.
Feedback from visitors and exhibitors at last year’s events indicated that, as a business-to-business transport industry forum, each of the platforms delivered the goods, with more than 85% of respondents rating the displays and conferences as good or excellent.
To broaden aftermarket involvement in the platforms, organisers the Future Group – in association with South African Trade Promotions – have appointed motoring journalist Wynter Murdoch to convene the inaugural TruckX and FleetX Product Excellence Awards.
Murdoch is in the process of appointing an independent jury of experts who will be tasked with judging entries with a view to uncovering products that are considered groundbreaking from a variety of perspectives.
The jury will look for items that hold the promise of performing beyond expectation, that are innovative and promote efficiency, are perceived to represent good value for money, are of excellent quality and which bring fresh perspectives to the aftermarket segments in which they compete.
Functionality, practicality, styling, benefits to users, environmental friendliness and other perceived pioneering qualities are among the specifics that jury members will be searching for.
The experts will come from the ranks of local aftermarket and automotive focused organisations as well as the motoring media. If you manufacture, distribute or supply cutting edge products in any aftermarket category, consider entering the awards – the accolades are significant.
HOW TO ENTER:
Prospective entrants are invited to submit by noon on Wednesday, June 6, photographs and a detailed description of any automotive aftermarket product they have developed, manufactured, imported or distributed in South Africa, which they deem worthy of entry into the TruckX and FleetX Product Excellence Awards.
Based on the photographs and descriptions – which must include information relating to the technical characteristics and aftermarket relevance of each product – jury members will individually rank each item.
From the returned scores, products which achieve the highest marks on a collective basis will be deemed to be finalists. Representatives of the companies whose products have been selected will be asked to submit by Friday, June 22, two examples of the items for physical scrutiny by jury members. Following that evaluation, the winners will be determined on the basis of highest marks scored on a collective basis.
The organisers of TruckX and FleetX have arranged for exhibits of the winning products – along with those selected as highly commended – to be showcased at the show under a Product Excellence Awards banner. Presentations will be made to winners at a prize-giving ceremony which will form part of the event’s official opening conference on July 11.
If you would like to enter the Product Excellence Awards, submit by e-mail your product motivations, along with hi-resolution pictures of the items at least 1Mb in size, to wynter@thefuture.co.za.
The description of each product must include its country of origin, when it was introduced to the South African market and the category of the aftermarket at which it is aimed. Additionally, entrants must clarify the following:
- Perceived innovative qualities of the product;
- The solution the product aims to provide;
- Its functionality and user benefits;
- Perceived economic efficiency;
- Safety aspects it promotes;
- Environmental aspects it promotes;
- Its relevance to the aftermarket sector in which it competes.
Don’t forget to include with your entry your name, e-mail address and telephone numbers, along with details of the company you represent.
The names of jury members and the organisations they represent will be made public once the panel has been finalised. If you have any queries or require more information regarding the initiative, please contact Wynter Murdoch, at 011 803 2040 or via e-mail at wynter@thefuture.co.za.
