Scania has been selling mining trucks in the Indian market for a long time through its partner L&T. The Swedish vehicle maker commenced its own Indian operations in early 2012, started selling coaches in 2013 and inaugurated its manufacturing facility in 2015. Scania made well-worked out decisions of appointing dealers for its range of vehicles even before starting commercial operations. Dealers were strategically located across the South and West to service its coaches and trucks. In Kerala, Scania is represented by EVM Heavy Commercial Vehicles, part of the EVM Group. We visited Cochin to meet Mr. Jimmy Jose, Director, EVM Heavy Commercial Vehicles, and also a die-hard bus fan, regarding his company’s operations and success thus far with Scania.
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Many congratulations for EVM Scania’s excellent start in the market. Please take us through your company’s journey.
Thank you! We are a part of EVM Group which has multiple businesses across automobiles, hospitality, exports among others. The company was founded by Mr. E.M. Johny and started operations in the early 1930’s. Now his son Mr. Sabu Johny is running the group. I am personally very interested in buses and used to admire them ever since childhood. So it was natural for me to look for an opportunity in the same field and Scania was an easy choice. We started this outlet on 3rd Februrary 2014 and were the third Scania dealer in the country after the ones in Mumbai and Chennai. Our first vehicle delivery happened on 29th April 2014 for Eon Connect who was our first customer. From there, we have grown and now have 54 coaches and 2 trucks on road. We have started off well, continuing with good momentum and are excited about the future.
What is the strategic importance of Cochin in terms of availability of service for Scania. What are the facilities you have in place?
Cochin is one of the major hubs for inter-city bus transportation as we have connectivity to Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Chennai and within Kerala as well. Most major operators in south India have connectivity to Cochin from any one of these cities. So it is essential that we have a service touch point here. Also we provide service support up to Coimbatore in case of any requirement as we are located close by.
Coming to the facilities, we have a 3-bay modern service outlet with technicians and service advisors trained by Scania. We work on periodic and preventive maintenance and have facilities for all these. We play a major role in quick service turnaround and ensure even major accident repairs are done in quick time. We have put vehicles with major accidents back on road within two weeks and this way we are capable of working closely with customers and ensure they are not left stranded. We also have a service van to reach customers quickly.
Though we work for sales, we are a major service-based outlet and ensure each customer gets excellent level of service from us.
Could you tell us about the big orders you had bagged recently?
Our first bulk order for the Metrolink coach was from Kerala SRTC (KSRTC). The KSRTC MD Mr. Antony Chacko was very interested in trying out new products and hence we approached them with the Metrolink. We initially offered them the vehicle for trials for few months which gave them a lot of confidence on the product. The fuel performance was one of major USPs and we received very good response from the passengers as well. Finally, with good pricing we were able to bag an order for 20 coaches.
Our second major order was from Mr. Suresh of Kallada Travels. They have the largest coach fleet in Kerala and a major interstate operator. We initially got an order for four coaches and after being impressed with the vehicle performance, they have taken around 20 coaches in total for their group. We are happy that we are working with two of the biggest fleet operators in the state and will try and ensure to continue this momentum for coming years as well.
What according to you are the major USPs of Scania?
One of the biggest USPs of the Scania Metrolink is its steerable tag axle. With this feature our customers are able to comfortable drive 15m coaches in Wayanad and Moonar hills which our competition is unable to match. This made sure we entered new routes and gain the confidence of customers who are operating in these routes.
Another major USP is the Opticruise Automated transmission. The 8-speed automated gear box has done wonders in terms of fuel performance and reliability. It delivers very good fuel economy and ensures consistent fuel performance across drivers.
What is the split between your sale of single-axle and multi-axle coaches? How do you intend to take this forward?
Most of the coaches we have sold are multi-axle ones as they are primarily run on inter-city routes and deliver better returns. The major share of single-axle coaches currently in Kerala comes from the tourist segment. Religious tourism is a major attraction in our place and we find a lot of foreign tourists, especially from Europe, coming here. They are looking for European coaches and we are better placed in this segment here in Kerala.
In this regard, we have also started offering multi-axle coaches for the tourist segment. Customers are happy with the coaches thanks to its better maneuverability when compared to single-axle coaches.
Based on our understanding of customer requirements and the way the market is moving, we feel we will continue to see a shift from single-axle coaches to multi-axles in the tourist segment as well as we see huge potential for multi-axle coaches in future.
How does Scania support you in terms of spare parts availability? How do keep track of the import of parts from overseas?
Scania supports us in a large scale in terms of parts availability. Scania has placed their parts here and we will are billed only when the parts are consumed. We have a complete list of major accident and maintenance parts stored here to ensure quick turnaround of vehicles which has enabled us put vehicles back on road in quick time. We ensure vehicles are not held up for the want of parts and have windscreen, foot-steps, front-facia, rear-facia, etc., stocked at our outlet. Scania ensures its parts are priced competitively and available off the shelf which have helped ensure parts import is in check.
How do you plan to expand your service reach?
We are currently working on opening one more service outlet in Trivandrum. It would be a three-bay workshop with many facilities including bus wash systems. With these steps we ensure we are always available for our customers, ready to take care of all their requirements.