THE ISUZU AFTERSALES DIFFERENCE

For anyone considering a new truck purchase, there’s a raft of business inputs—and indeed their bearing on overall profitability—to closely consider. In road transport, there’s the more obvious (and costly) factors. Fuel economy, service and maintenance spring to mind. Whilst important, these represent just a few of the inputs facing a business owner working with trucks, and it takes a genuine desire to find new, better ways of doing things, to really extend the life of these major business assets.

State of play

Isuzu’s recently compiled Future of Trucking report (FoT) surveyed over 1,000 truck owners across Australia. It revealed that highest on the list of priorities for Australian business owners was the issue of profitability. An increasingly competitive market environment in combination with the global pandemic and escalating operational costs, is working to drive down margins. In tackling the issue of profitability, fleets are increasingly looking at ‘lifetime’ costs of capital equipment, alongside many other fleet operating costs. In fact, Isuzu’s FoT report found that 64 per cent of businesses believe the total lifetime cost of ownership was far more important than the sticker price. In the less populated states, this figure was significantly higher, such as in Western Australia (71 per cent) and the Northern Territory, where 79 per cent of truck businesses held this view.

Warranty

A key aspect of the lifetime cost of a piece of capital equipment is of course its warranty, and despite appearances, not all warranties are created equal. Isuzu Australia Limited (IAL) National Service Manager, Brett Stewart, said warranty was an area often overlooked at the time of sale, and mis-managed, can carry huge implications for owners. “Some warranty products may match the manufactures’ warranty provisions, although the product itself may be handled by a third party outside of the OEM, especially in regards to extended warranties. You need to ensure that your warranty (factory or extended) is ‘like for like’ with your expectations,” he said. “They are sometimes hard to identify, but there can be tricks and traps. A common complaint is that there are sometimes limits applied dependent on the cost of the repairs over a given time frame. "Another hurdle customers face with their warranty is rejected claims. This often occurs when a claim is adjudicated by parties outside of the OEM, where substandard product understanding can lead to frustrations and challenges,” Mr Stewart said.

Best in field

With this in mind, and following the recent release of the smartest, safest N Series ever, Isuzu Trucks has delivered the most robust factory warranty offering in the Australian truck parc…

• All N Series 4x2 cab chassis trucks are now backed by a market-leading factory warranty of six years (or 250,000 kilometres) and six years of Isuzu’s 24-hour roadside assist.
• Regarding Isuzu’s pre-built Ready-to-Work range, all 4x2 models also come covered with a six-year (or 250,000 km) factory warranty for the cab-chassis, six years roadside assist and a comprehensive three-year warranty on pre-built bodies.

“What we’re signaling with this offering is the supreme confidence we have in the N Series product. It’s also a response to some of the research we’ve conducted, which suggests Australian business owners are struggling to meet the increasingly demanding compliance obligations,” Mr Stewart said. Isuzu research shows that one in three small fleets are unprepared or unaware of their Chain of Responsibility (CoR) obligations, particularly when transport may not be their core business. In creating responsible, transparent and cost-effective aftersales support packages, Isuzu are aiming to shoulder at least some of that burden for customers and the brand’s new service agreement packages are a case in point. “We’ve had a fantastic reaction to a re-brand of our previous Isuzu service agreements, and we worked hard to re-align them with what we know some of the priorities are for our customers," Mr Steward commented. Isuzu Trucks offers a range of comprehensive service agreements and extended care options that can assist operators to keep on top of maintenance and compliance, with advance vision of a known, up-front cost to the business. Matched with broad industry training for all Isuzu technicians, and the support of over 70 locations nationwide backing operations, it’s a compelling offering. “When you combine all of this with Isuzu’s updated N Series product, featuring our market-leading warranty and the next generation of safety with ADAS—we can confidently say that there’s no better offer in the market when it comes to a comprehensive, light-duty transport solution,” Mr Stewart concluded.