Scania seeks growth through services, not sales

Although it starts 2018 with the most modern range of trucks and engines of any manufacturer, Scania is not seeking to achieve any greater share of new truck sales than it achieved last year, both in the UK and globally, UK managing director Claes Jacobsson said.

Addressing UK journalists at the announcement of the final phase in Scania’s range renewal programme, the company’s UK chief said the VW subsidiary was instead looking to expand its sales of services.

He placed emphasis on Scania’s telematics-based Optimise predictive maintenance service, which harvests data from the 40,000 ‘connected’ Scania vehicles in the UK to schedule services and parts replacements on the basis of individual vehicle condition, rather than a time or distance parameter.

Last year, Scania sold 1.2 million hours of service time directly, with another 1.8 million being sold through Scania dealers.

Scania’s vehicle rental operation was expected to defend its already strong position in the UK.

Sales director Andrew Jamieson said that 2017 had been an exceptional year for Scania with the launch of so many new vehicles. Expectations of demand for the new S-Series flagship had been exceeded, and 3,100 orders for the next generation trucks had been taken during the year.

The 480 hp straight-six was Scania’s most popular engine in the UK, but the factory was struggling to meet demand for the V8s. The new 650 hp SCR-only V8 engine was proving very popular in heavy-haulage prime-movers.

Scania’s 450 hp engine was returning fuel savings of 6.7 per cent over previous models. Operators were reporting improvements of one mpg or more.

Tridems – rigid chassis with a single front axle and triaxle rear bogie – were now a standard offering from Scania, and there was evidence that they were displacing traditional 8x4s in some fleets.