Till now we have been a niche player in mining and today we are looking forward to deploying our trucks beyond the mining sector.

Dinakar B,Senior  Vice President,VE Commercial Vehicles Ltd(Volvo Trucks)

We have one global benchmark for quality across the world. Our key differentiator is the after-sales.

Christina Hallin, Vice President Market India, Volvo Trucks

An interview with Christina Hallin, Vice President Market India, Volvo Trucks and Dinakar B, Senior Vice President, VE Commercial Vehicles Ltd (Volvo Trucks):

Mr Dinakar, it has been reported that the government is drafting a rule where no BS-IV vehicle registration will be allowed beyond June 2020. How will it impact the heavy commercial vehicles industry?

Dinakar: In March 2017 when the Supreme Court ordered that only vehicles with engines compliant with BS-IV standards must be sold from 1st April 2017, all the manufacturers were ready with the BS-IV variants.

Similarly, we believe that companies like VECV will be ready for BS-VI migration in all aspects when the time comes. VECV already has the technology and we are selling Euro-VI variant of vehicles which is equivalent to BS-VI elsewhere in the world. So, transition to Euro-VI is not going to be a big issue for us and we believe it’s going to be a positive development. It will level the playing field for all world-class manufacturers.

Last year saw a huge shift in emission norms for the vehicle segment. Was there any kind of impact on your business?

Dinakar: No, we were prepared with BS-IV from the time the announcement on mandatory transition was made. Our trucks were ready by October 2016 and got the requisite certification. We also did our volume planning accordingly. So, we did not have much of impact on this.

What kind of value for money do you offer to the Indian customers especially where people are very conscious about the cost?

Dinakar: We drive the total life cycle operation cost of a machine. For the customers who are conscious of initial cost, we work with them and offer them the entire operations costs like trucking operations, hauling operations or transport operations. We explain to them about what creates more value for them and also allow them to experience real value for money by giving demo trucks. They will know the costs involved by analysing per cubic metre based on fuel expenditure, maintenance, transportation and driver cost.

Ms Christina, how do you look at the Indian market?

Christina: India is an important market for us and it’s in the centre stage of our business strategies for the region. Increasing investments in construction and road infrastructure sector will drive the growth of our equipment in future. We also believe that the strength of Volvo Group in India will be enhanced once the India’s roads and infrastructure segments mature.

Mr Dinakar, what’s your business perspective for the next one year?

Dinakar: Till now we have been a niche player in mining and today we are looking forward to deploying our trucks beyond the mining sector. In November 2016, we started this initiative and created a separate team to work on it. We have already seeded around 132 trucks in three segments namely irrigation, road construction and quarry operations. These new business segments are very close to our core strengths which can utilise the value proposition which Volvo provides.

What kind of benchmarks have you set for the Indian market in terms of product quality and achieving efficiency?

Christina: We have one global benchmark for quality across the world. Our key differentiator is the after-sales. In India, we are the only CV manufacturer who gives the service directly to the customers.

Dinakar: We have over 230 touchpoints in India. We started a unique concept called site support workshops that cater to uptime guarantees, maintenance contracts, service agreements and parts supplies. So, we set high standards and achieve that. Today, with our support, our customers have been able to achieve up to 30 per cent of growth in truck utilisation. We also introduced I-shift in India in 2014 that maximises performance, boosts fuel efficiency and increases driver productivity.