Scania (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, as the Platinum Sponsor of the Association of Malaysian Hauliers (AMH) D’Gala Nite 2015, revved up the excitement of the annual dinner this year with a very special edition of its Scania Driver Competition, which allowed the gala dinner guests to experience a small part of what their drivers have to do on a daily basis. 



Scania Malaysia recently put the guests, which were mostly those from Malaysian haulage companies to the test when it placed them behind the wheel of a prime mover that was attached to a 40 foot trailer and asked them go through a series of maneuvers. The Scania Driver Competition - AMH D’Gala Nite 2015 Edition also served as a preview for the main Scania Driver Competitions 2014/2015 Malaysia-Singapore (SDC) that will be held later this year.

Also on display at the dinner were two Scania prime movers – the P410LA6X2MSZ with Opticruise and the Streamline G460LA6X2MNA – as well as the Scania Fleet Management system.  

PRESS RELEASE
SCANIA PUTS HAULIERS TO THE TEST
 
Shah Alam, 2 September 2015 – Scania recently put the Malaysian haulage companies to the test when it placed them behind the wheel of a prime mover that was attached to a 40 foot trailer and asked them go through a series of maneuvers.

As the Platinum Sponsor of the Association of Malaysian Hauliers (AMH) D’Gala Nite 2015, Scania revved up the excitement of the annual dinner this year with a special edition of its Scania Driver Competition, which allowed the guests to experience a small part of what their drivers have to do on a daily basis.

     Runner-up, Said Harun, Port Klang Branch Manager of Kontena Nasional

     Berhad.

The Scania Driver Competition - AMH D’Gala Nite 2015 Edition also served as a preview for the main Scania Driver Competitions 2014/2015 Malaysia-Singapore (SDC) that will be held later this year.

This special edition was won by Mr. Vissnu s/o Rengasamy, Managing Director of L&R Haulage Sdn. Bhd – Champion, Mr. Said Harun, Port Klang Branch Manager of Kontena Nasional Bhd – 1st runner-up and the only female participant Ms. K. Maria, Assistant Manager of LTS Logistics Sdn Bhd – 2nd runner-up. Winning the competition gave the winners a sense of appreciation of the skills of their drivers’, the effort and control that is required in keeping the trucks in good running condition.

     Runner-up, K. Maria, Assistant Manager of LTS Logistics Sdn Bhd.

“This competition was a bit of fun for the operators but it is also allows them to experience for themselves what their drivers need in terms of optimal technology in the vehicle to do their job well,” said Sales Director of Scania Southeast Asia, Idros Puteh.

Also on display at the dinner were two Scania prime movers – the P410LA6X2MSZ with Opticruise and the Streamline G460LA6X2MNA – as well as the Scania Fleet Management system.  

“These are some of the many products and services that make up for what we call Scania Total Solutions, to allow hauliers to optimise their fleets for the best profitability,” added Idros.  

The Guests of Honour in attendance were YBhg Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Dr Syed Hamid Albar, Chairman of the Public Land Transport Commission (SPAD) and YBhg Datuk Che Azizuddin Che Ismail, President of AMH.

Today I was at Scania Malaysia for the launch of the Scania Assistance Service and Scania Fleet Management System. These are ownership solutions for better profitability for Scania bus and truck operators here in Malaysia. Of course, I get to view some nice machines too. In the heavy duty sort of scale that is. I was busy taking admiring the huge Garrett turbo fitted to the Scania bus chassis to the left of the photo above folks.



Anyway, before I get  sidetracked, the new Scania Assistance service is an operator based call centre that operates round the clock and allows Scania's customers to always be in contact with Scania when the need arises. This service is now based on Scania's global standards and this latest call centre system allows Scania to track and follow up on the status of a customer's case from start to finish. It will keep the customer informed on what is going on with, say a stranded vehicle and what are the folks at Scania doing about it.

The Scania Assistance is supported by a team of customer service personnel, a fleet of standby service vans with trained technicians who can connect with Scania's network of workshops which can assist any Scania customer in need even in difficult to reach areas.

The Scania Assistance number is 1800-08-8500 (or +603 5590 9077 for international calls – for those travelling to Thailand or Singapore probably) and every new Scania truck, bus or coach chassis now comes with two years of free Scania Assistance.

Aside from the Scania Assistance, Scania also provides the Scania Fleet Management System. This is a set of services that connects the Scania vehicles with the customer's office as well as Scania via a communicator device (shown above - the little box in the middle of the photo is essentially a GPS packet data device, connected to Scania's servers in Sweden and therefore allows global tracking even though most of the local customers would travel within Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand). Scania customers will be able to retreive vehicle data, fleet position and also review the driver's performance (fuel consumption, CO2 levels, idle time, brake, average speed etc). By being able to peruse through the data, the customers can make decisions to improve the productivity of their fleet.

During the briefing, we were shown what Scania Fleet Management can do. It basically can allow Scania vehicle operators to take control of their vehicles and actually see what their drivers are doing to their vehicles. You can tell if a driver is driving uneconomically or idling the vehicle longer than usual or even braking harder than supposed to. With supporting data it allows the fleet manager to actually coach the drivers on better driving habits which will in turn save fuel consumption as well as wear and tear on the vehicles. The demonstration included a Scania prime mover which was driven around the area surrounding the Scania Headquarters and we could see it being tracked by the system doing so. There was also a mock driver and driver trainer discussion informing on where the driver had driven badly or otherwise.

These two systems provide with a pretty good solution for those operating commercial vehicles. According to the Managing Director of Scania Southeast Asia, Mr James Armstrong (below), “Our customers' operations are at the center of the entire value chain. Scanias wide range or quality products and services are constantly improving and optimised for our customer's needs.”

“This is Scania's total solutions approach to help our customers achieve the best profitability.” He added.

Of course, these systems are not without a price but the increased productivity may actually over ride any extra costs. The Scania Fleet Management pricing is reasonable where all new vehicles ordered from the 1st of December 2014 will come with the Scania Communicator built into the vehicles and will get a 10 year subscription of the monitoring package. Current vehicles can also be retrofitted for a sum of RM3,100. One can also upgrade to the Control Package at a cost of RM136 per vehicle per month.

The difference between the two is that the reporting in the Control Package is more detailed (of course) in that it provides more detailed reports. It even includes traffic lights report, fleet position and even geo fencing (which allows customers to have an alarm when a vehicle enters or leaves a predetermined zone). There are tons more functions and stuff about the Scania Fleet Management system. I am just skimming the surface of it actually. For more detailed information, just head on over to the Scania Malaysia website.

From what I can see the Scania Fleet Management system works quite well. And coupled with the Scania Assistance service a customer should be able to maximise their fleet of vehicles in any circumstances and plan for any contingencies. From a layman's point of view, it is this sort of value added services that make the Swedish trucking industry stay way ahead of their competitors.