Scania has been selling mining trucks in the Indian market for a long
time through its partner L&T. The Swedish vehicle maker commenced
its own Indian operations in early 2012, started selling coaches in 2013
and inaugurated its manufacturing facility in 2015. Scania made
well-worked out decisions of appointing dealers for its range of
vehicles even before starting commercial operations. Dealers were
strategically located across the South and West to service its coaches
and trucks. In Kerala, Scania is represented by EVM Heavy Commercial
Vehicles, part of the EVM Group. We visited Cochin to meet Mr. Jimmy
Jose, Director, EVM Heavy Commercial Vehicles, and also a die-hard bus
fan, regarding his company’s operations and success thus far with
Scania.
Excerpts:
Many congratulations for EVM Scania’s excellent start in the market. Please take us through your company’s journey.
Thank you! We are a part of EVM Group
which has multiple businesses across automobiles, hospitality, exports
among others. The company was founded by Mr. E.M. Johny and started
operations in the early 1930’s. Now his son Mr. Sabu Johny is running
the group. I am personally very interested in buses and used to admire
them ever since childhood. So it was natural for me to look for an
opportunity in the same field and Scania was an easy choice. We started
this outlet on 3rd Februrary 2014 and were the third Scania dealer in
the country after the ones in Mumbai and Chennai. Our first vehicle
delivery happened on 29th April 2014 for Aeon Connect who was our first
customer. From there, we have grown and now have 54 coaches and 2 trucks
on road. We have started off well, continuing with good momentum and
are excited about the future.
What is
the strategic importance of Cochin in terms of availability of service
for Scania. What are the facilities you have in place?
Cochin is one of the major hubs for
inter-city bus transportation as we have connectivity to Bangalore,
Hyderabad, and Chennai and within Kerala as well. Most major operators
in south India have connectivity to Cochin from any one of these cities.
So it is essential that we have a service touch point here. Also we
provide service support up to Coimbatore in case of any requirement as
we are located close by.
Coming to the facilities, we have a
3-bay modern service outlet with technicians and service advisors
trained by Scania. We work on periodic and preventive maintenance and
have facilities for all these. We play a major role in quick service
turnaround and ensure even major accident repairs are done in quick
time. We have put vehicles with major accidents back on road within two
weeks and this way we are capable of working closely with customers and
ensure they are not left stranded. We also have a service van to reach
customers quickly.
Though we work for sales, we are a major service-based outlet and ensure each customer gets excellent level of service from us.
Could you tell us about the big orders you had bagged recently?
Our first bulk order for the Metrolink
coach was from Kerala SRTC (KSRTC). The KSRTC MD Mr. Antony Chacko was
very interested in trying out new products and hence we approached them
with the Metrolink. We initially offered them the vehicle for trials for
few months which gave them a lot of confidence on the product. The fuel
performance was one of major USPs and we received very good response
from the passengers as well. Finally, with good pricing we were able to
bag an order for 20 coaches.
Our second major order was from Mr.
Suresh of Kallada Travels. They have the largest coach fleet in Kerala
and a major interstate operator. We initially got an order for four
coaches and after being impressed with the vehicle performance, they
have taken around 20 coaches in total for their group. We are happy that
we are working with two of the biggest fleet operators in the state and
will try and ensure to continue this momentum for coming years as well.
What according to you are the major USPs of Scania?
One of the biggest USPs of the Scania
Metrolink is its steerable tag axle. With this feature our customers
are able to comfortable drive 15m coaches in Wayanad and Moonar hills
which our competition is unable to match. This made sure we entered new
routes and gain the confidence of customers who are operating in these
routes.
Another major USP is the Opticruise
Automated transmission. The 8-speed automated gear box has done wonders
in terms of fuel performance and reliability. It delivers very good fuel
economy and ensures consistent fuel performance across drivers.
What is the split between your sale of single-axle and multi-axle coaches? How do you intend to take this forward?
Most of the coaches we have sold are
multi-axle ones as they are primarily run on inter-city routes and
deliver better returns. The major share of single-axle coaches currently
in Kerala comes from the tourist segment. Religious tourism is a major
attraction in our place and we find a lot of foreign tourists,
especially from Europe, coming here. They are looking for European
coaches and we are better placed in this segment here in Kerala.
In this regard, we have also started
offering multi-axle coaches for the tourist segment. Customers are
happy with the coaches thanks to its better maneuverability when
compared to single-axle coaches.
Based on our understanding of customer
requirements and the way the market is moving, we feel we will continue
to see a shift from single-axle coaches to multi-axles in the tourist
segment as well as we see huge potential for multi-axle coaches in
future.
How does Scania support you in terms of spare parts availability? How do keep track of the import of parts from overseas?
Scania supports us in a large scale in
terms of parts availability. Scania has placed their parts here and we
will are billed only when the parts are consumed. We have a complete
list of major accident and maintenance parts stored here to ensure quick
turnaround of vehicles which has enabled us put vehicles back on road
in quick time. We ensure vehicles are not held up for the want of parts
and have windscreen, foot-steps, front-facia, rear-facia, etc., stocked
at our outlet. Scania ensures its parts are priced competitively and
available off the shelf which have helped ensure parts import is in
check.
How do you plan to expand your service reach?
We are currently working on opening one
more service outlet in Trivandrum. It would be a three-bay workshop with
many facilities including bus wash systems. With these steps we ensure
we are always available for our customers, ready to take care of all
their requirements.
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| Mr. Jimmy Jose, Director, EVM Heavy Commercial Vehicles |
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| EVM Scania Showroom , Kerala |
Info Credits : MotorIndia Magazine
