INDUSTRY NEWS
MAN Trucks and Bus steers in the direction of making the most out of a decline
Trucker says it has increased market share in a tough market
The heavy commercial vehicle market has registered a decline this year compared with previous years, but some companies are managing to make the best of the situation. "We see that the demand for buses and coaches in the South African Common Customs Union has declined by almost 10% year on year, causing much-needed fleet renewals to be delayed and bigger tenders for expanded fleets to be postponed by a number of months into the future," says Dave van Graan, head of special sales projects at MAN Truck & Bus SA. "The truck market over 8.5 tonnes in the Common Customs Union has shown better fortunes with only a decline of 1.8% year on year. "However, this volume uptake seems a lot more buoyant than much of the feedback we get from certain subsegments of the industry — where we often hear of declines in kilometre utilisations of about 10% year on year and consequently assets being sweated for one year longer than their original replacement point. High stock reserves, innovative sales su...
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