Taking advantage of the bright prospects of a fast-moving economy and a rapidly growing CV segment, Trident Trucking made the strategic move to take on the dealership of BharatBenz in 2012. Trident Automobiles, the parent dealership, was established in 1998 as a dealer for the then emerging passenger car brand. Today, the group handles Hyundai, Renault, Honda cars, Isuzu small commercial and passenger vehicles, Chevrolet service and BharatBenz and Mercedes Benz range of commercial vehicles. As the third largest dealer for BharatBenz trucks and the top dealer for their buses, Trident Trucking today covers 15 districts in South Karnataka.
Mr. H.S. Sudarshan, CEO, Trident Trucking, says: “Our directors have always thrived on taking on challenges and winning them. They took on BharatBenz commercial vehicles when the brand was still establishing itself in India. And Trident works true to its motto which is ‘Driving Home A Relationship’ by establishing and prioritizing relationship with its customers over clinching a deal.”
Mr. Raghavendra Prabhu, DGM – Sales, adds: “We were confident that BharatBenz products were going to be the game changers in India because they had aimed to focus on the maturing CV transportation industry in India.”
Trident Trucking believes that BharatBenz, as a brand, brings in a huge value proposition to the drivers and the owners, especially with its proposed launch of the 14-ton rigid medium duty truck. The range starts from nine to 49-ton trucks and from nine to multi-axle coaches in the bus range.
According to Trident officials, it is both the drivers and the fleet owners who decide on BharatBenz trucks as their ultimate choice of vehicles.
Mr. Sudarshan shares: “The driver, on the one hand, not only drives the vehicle but also practically lives in it for most part of his life. Unless the vehicle is comfortable, he cannot do his job well. BharatBenz has brought in this much-required change in the industry by designing more comfortable cabins. On the other hand, the fleet owner enjoys an economical cost of operations and long service intervals, reliability.”
Mr. Prabhu says: “It is about the total cost of ownership for our customers too. Safer and comfortable driving means better productivity because the driver can drive longer compared to any other truck. For the owner, it directly translates into revenue. So, even if the vehicle cost is marginally higher, the fleet owner figures out that the cost of ownership is actually much lower in the years down the line.”
Mr. R.P. Rajendra Kumar – Area Sales Head, observes: “The drivers also play a major role in their owners buying our vehicles. They feel pride in driving our trucks and they naturally share the advantages of it with other drivers and their owners. Taking this further, we have launched our ‘Driver-to-Owner’ program to encourage willing drivers to become owners by supporting them in identifying financiers and offerings from our range of new and pre-owned trucks and buses.”
Another crucial point is that BharatBenz trucks offer higher longevity. Agrees Mr. Prabhu: “Normally, commercial vehicles are abused and due to that, the life of the engine or the aggregates gets reduced. But today BharatBenz vehicles work out cheaper for the owner because of low maintenance even after, say, four lakh kilometers because the longevity of the aggregates is high. Our trucks have high-powered engines, the gear box is rugged and the aggregates better. So, the customer has better savings.”
Mr. Sadanand Pai, AGM – Service, quotes an example that reiterates the grit of BharatBenz trucks: “In the Chitradurga belt, our trucks are operating at a depth of 240 feet. We believe no other truck apart from BharatBenz’s can work under extreme conditions.”
Continuous and steady growth in commercial vehicle volumes in the last 3-4 years has been encouraging. For Trident, the prospects are even better today than they were in the past.
Mr. Sudarshan adds: “In our very first year, we seeded close to 200 vehicles across our territory in key segments. Keeping the momentum going, last year we sold over 1,400 units. We believe in value selling. And most of our customers understand the value of the brand and the vehicle. We have a few customers who had gone looking at the discounts being offered by our competition, but when it came to second vehicle purchase, they came back to us.”
Further, adds Mr. Prabhu: “BharatBenz is the only product where we can offer an AMC of up to 10 lakh kilometers which no other competitor offers. Besides this, we have extended warranty products. This actually shows the confidence in the product. To add another feather in our cap, we have started a vertical for pre-owned vehicles and presently we are focusing on BharatBenz vehicles.”
BharatBenz ably supports the ‘star’ dealership, Trident Trucking, by offering a super reliable support system in all its activities and market development efforts.
Mr. Sudarshan agrees: “The Daimler plant near Chennai encourages multiple plant visits, and provides technical training to our team members on a continuous basis. We have facilitated visit to the Daimler plant in Germany for a few of our customers. The Sales Grid app developed by Daimler helps our team connect with our customers on a real time basis. There is another app, ProServmobile app, which offers technical information to our customers. And whenever required, Daimler team members accompany our team to present a business case to our customers.”
New market avenues
Trident is rapidly building its capabilities for deeper penetration in the market despite having a dominant presence in quite a few models and segments in its territory.
Mr. Prabhu agrees: “Having feet on ground is crucial for us.”
In the same context, Mr. Sudarshan adds: “Right now we have six workshops in these 15 districts in South Karnataka. But in the next 18 months or so, we will take it up to 10 which will allow us to cover all the potential belts in the territory. Last year we added two, which is 12 bays, and this year we will be adding around 25 bays. In the next two years, we will be adding close to 40 bays.”
Reaching out to its customers, Trident Trucking has breakdown teams known as field service teams which operate in emergency response round the clock. There are about 10 vehicles on the go with sufficient sets of skilled technicians on the standby, apart from offering regular service to its fleet customers onsite.
Mr. Sudarshan says: “Any vehicle which is off the road anywhere in our territory, our commitment is to reach it within four hours and we try to put it back on the road within 24 hours. Right now, we are capable of replacing any major aggregate within this timeframe.”
In line with customer needs, we have started night shift in two of our branches and plan to implement it across all our branches in the near future.
Overcoming challenges
Ever-increasing customer expectations, improving deliverables, keeping the team motivated and focused and synergizing the team towards a common goal are some of the challenges for the management. The approach has been to involve stakeholders, create and implement workable action plans and to sustain them. Trident Trucking has an able team which is tuned to this continuous improvement “change management” cycles.
Sensitivity to their customers’ requirements, expectations and responding is the catalyst to Trident’s growth.
Shares Mr. Sudarshan: “We offer regular and focused training to our workforce to handle any and all challenges. Our group has excellent soft skill trainers who keep engaging with our team members on a continuous basis. As a team, we do something called Prepare, Drill and Rehearse exercise periodically at all our outlets. Following the culture at Trident, every morning at all our locations, the team prays together and sings the national anthem followed by a short meeting of 15 minutes wherein the achievements and challenges are discussed. And most often, a sales team member is asked to put forth a mock sales pitch or a service team member will explain technicalities as part of continuous learning for all. We keep doing this on a regular basis because we believe that there is always scope for improvement.”
A few more unique practices at Trident include the sales and service team members of each branch come together once a month to celebrate birthdays and recognize achievers. Best performers across verticals are called for a quarterly dinner meeting with the directors where they are felicitated. Long serving team members, right from housekeeping to senior management across the group, become eligible for a trip abroad, which may be a once in a lifetime opportunity for many.
What further inspires the team at Trident is the fact that since their opening, the dealership has always achieved higher sales targets year on year. And it is not going to change any time soon.
Hiring women technicians is very much on the cards for Trident. And so is the idea of training women as drivers.
Having covered all possible ground and armed with a clear road map, ‘Team Trident Trucking’ is driving ahead in their mission to flood Bharat with ‘Bharat Ka Benz’ with a clear thought that ‘every relationship matters’.