Al-Shirawi Enterprises (ASE) has revealed its intention to introduce Scania’s Ecolution tool to the UAE market before the year-end.
Ecolution is designed to improve the fuel economy and reduce the emissions of the Swedish manufacturer’s commercial vehicles.
ASE, Scania’s exclusive dealer in Dubai and the Northern Emirates, will introduce the programme as part of its overarching strategy to promote proactive and preventative servicing and maintenance amongst local fleet operators.
“The role-out of the Ecolution programme will definitely be priority number-one for our Scania operation,” explained Lars Möller, general manager for aftersales at ASE.
“That will then give us the full implementation of these proactive ideas that we’re working on. We hope to have the Ecolution programme in place before the end of 2014,” he told PMV.
Ecolution by Scania combines vehicle technology, driver management, and extended maintenance to improve both profits and environmental performance for fleet operators; a product that is in keeping with ASE’s ongoing campaign to persuade UAE end users to move away from the traditional repair-after-failure approach towards proactive and preventative maintenance strategies.
Whilst preventative maintenance involves diagnosing problems before they lead to major damage, the proactive approach is designed to prevent such problems from arising by ensuring that best practice is followed from the outset.
As Möller explained, a shift in mindset can result in massive cost savings – and in turn, profit increases – for fleet operators.
“I’ve been talking to some oil analysis companies, one in the United States and one in South Africa,” he said.
“Both firms have issued reports on the advantages of preventative maintenance and how much money you can save. I took a few of their reports and combined some of their conclusions. I then ran it past them, and they agreed: there is a cost relation between repair after failure, repair before failure, and the proactive approach.
“It is actually quite staggering. If it costs you $100 to repair a failure, it will cost you around $10 to repair before failure, and it will cost you $1 to prevent the problem from happening in the first place,” said Möller.
With this in mind, Möller is confident that Ecolution by Scania will facilitate ASE in its commitment to promoting the proactive approach to maintenance in the UAE’s commercial vehicles market.
“From my perspective, it’s a trust-building operation towards the customers,” he said.
“I want the customers not only to feel that they earn more money with Scania vehicles, but to be able to prove that this is the case. We want fleet operators to be with us, not because they have to, but because they want to. That’s the whole purpose,” Möller concluded.
For further coverage of Möller’s interview, check out the aftermarket special feature in the September 2014 issue of PMV Middle East.
