Scania Australia’s managing director, Mikael Jansson, has used an end of year lunch with truck trade press to reinforce his call for action to rid Australian roads of older trucks, to ensure a safer and cleaner environment.
“More and more companies are choosing Euro 6 product over Euro 5, but there are so many trucks out there that aren’t even Euro 0, old trucks that belch black smoke and other dangerous pullutants and don’t have the safety features of new trucks,” said Mikael Jansson.
At the Brisbane Truck Show in May, just before the federal election, Jansson made the same call, saying it was time for operators to decline use of these vehicles in densely populated areas.
“Old, dirty trucks should not be retired into the city, they should be pensioned off, for good,” he said.
“We can no longer turn a blind eye to their continual emission of dirty fumes and excessive Co2 where our children walk and play.”
He also pointed to alternatives such as hybrid, electric and particularly bio diesel.
‘Bio diesel could be a great generator of local jobs in regional areas where it could be produced in local plants and it could really take off, providing even more CO2 reduction than electric trucks,” he added.
The embrace of the latest emission and safety standards has clearly driving Scania sales in 2019, with the Swedish company already having logged a record year.
Its performance is mirrored by other brands which have pushed the Euro 6 standard along with safety improvements, clearly appealing to companies eager to comply with chain fo responsibity obligations.
The Swedish maker has broken the 1000 trucks barrier for the first time ever, with still a month to go in 2019.
Up to the end of November Scania sold 1050 trucks with the company expecting to reach, or possibly top 1100 trucks for the year, which will give it a nine per cent market share in heavy duty.
“We’ve never been at nine per cent market share before so it has been a fantastic year,” said Jansson.
Jansson told T&B News that the acceptance of the company’s NTG range had helped it achieve the milestone and great performance in what is a falling market.
“We had targeted 10 per cent share but to achieve nine per cent in a falling market is still very pleasing,” he added.
The lift in sales comes after a disappointing year in 2018 when supply issues handicapped its performance.
On top of the truck success, Jansson underlined the performance in other sectors, including 400 bus sales, which gave Scania 30 per cent share in the Australian route bus market. It also recently won the significant SA government bus order that equates to 340 bus sales over the next ten years.
“Our hybrid bus has had huge interested since launching at the Melbourne bus show and I believe this can act as a bridge to full electric bus operations in coming years,” said Jansson.
Jansson said the company had invested heavily in service and support for its products and that is also helping reap benefits. The company has employed 30 new apprentices this year and plans to employ a further 30 in 2020 to bolster its technical workforce and skills capability.
