Despite the lockdown across the country announced in the wake of the virus pandemic, VE Commercial Vehicles (VECV) continued with its primary task of providing technical assistance to drivers on the road along with offering various incentives, including extended warranties
The corona virus pandemic has caused significant disruption in the economy and the overall pressure on sales has presented a tough situation for the Indian automotive industry. One industry that has been able to stand its ground in the face of the pandemic is the automotive aftermarket. And with VE Commercial Vehicles (a Volvo Group and Eicher Motors’ joint venture) being a leading player in this segment, it has been providing continued support to its customers and drivers throughout the entire lockdown period. In fact, customer service has always been a top priority and for that a state-of-the-art ‘uptime centre’ was run seamlessly for remote diagnostics and round-the-clock service support.
EOS support continued to be provided by all the workshops and despite challenges, 80% of calls made on road were resolved within 24 hours. Further, to ensure ease of customers’ business post lockdown, the timeline for warranty was extended by two months. The VECV team and dealers have been in close touch with all its customers and their teams, including drivers, to provide them relevant support to improve the uptime. For the BS VI range of vehicles, for the first time VECV introduced extended driveline warranty of up to eight years for haulage and 15,000 hours for tippers.
Throughout the lockdown, 90% of Eicher workshops were running and ensuring trouble-free services to customers. This was enabled through digital and contactless operations, periodic sanitization, temperature checks and by following detailed SOPs and pandemic guidelines in all workshops across India. In addition to that, here are some of the highlights of the efforts that the company has undertaken to efficiently keep its aftermarket initiatives on track:
Operations Post-Lockdown
- 325 workshops out of 334 were already operational as of July 10 and VECV already has been able to achieve around 95% of daily average revenues pre-lockdown. This means, trucks have started running and are also getting repaired, thereby bringing in revenues and cash flow.
- To ensure the safety of customers, drivers and workshop employees, a detailed SOP is being followed in all workshops across India. Digital contactless operations are being practiced for all possible activities.
- Periodic sanitization of workshops and mandatory sanitization of vehicles is carried out.
- Pandemic-related guidelines are followed at all workshops that include the use of infrared thermometers, PPEs, sanitizers, masks, social distancing, etc.
- All workshop employees are educated on these guidelines.
- A ramp-up plan has been shared with all workshops to usher in normalisation.
- Customers are being connected with and wherever possible services are being rendered at sites to ensure ease of access and operations.
- Eicher workshop readiness and proactive vehicle check-up offers have been communicated to individual customers through various social media platforms and personal calls by all the operational workshops.
- Parts, lubes supplies, vendor support are being quickly ramped up.
- VECV has started onsite service support in select regions as per the lockdown relaxations and after a thorough analysis of each such area.
- VECV has initiated a massive awareness campaign through a social media channel and customer connect to educate them about pre-operational guidelines in all regional languages.
Extended Warranty
- VECV has facilitated an extension of warranty and AMC by two months with free service.
- For the first time in the transition phase of BS VI, VECV has introduced extended driveline warranty of up to eight years for haulage and 15,000 hours for tippers.
Support to Dealers
- The company has been closely tracking dealer-wise status on operational workshops, number of vehicle intake, revenues, manpower availability, salaries paid or not, etc.
- VECV has extended financial assistance to its dealers in the form of soft loans and a reasonable credit period to manage cash flow issues as well as incentives to retain trained manpower.
Uninterrupted Uptime
- During the lockdown period, technical solutions were offered round-the-clock to vehicles on the road by the uptime centre team using remote diagnosis and video conferencing.
- This included assistance during the night hours, which is more critical for goods’ movement. These calls accounted for 20% of the total number.
- Along with IOCL, daily food arrangement and hygiene kits’ distribution was carried out for more than 100 drivers at a time at Driver Pragati Kendra at Raipur in Chhatisgarh.