The manufacturers of trucks and vans begin to implement strategies to recover sales levels they had in 2008 after a fall from 54% last year. The infrastructure works and service to customers, including their keys. During 2009, manufacturers and distributors of commercial freight cars faced one of the worst years of having memory. The collapse of trade with Venezuela, the implementation of government measures and the general economic crisis contributed to this segment recorded a decline in sales exceeding 50%.

For this reason, truck manufacturers and distributors have begun to trace recovery strategies focused on a better approach to customers, new technological features in vehicles and use the construction of infrastructure. “We are in the midst of a transition in which we began to rethink the business, with a stronger focus on service,” says Ricardo Escobar, business manager for Nissan Distributor.

For example, the company created a sales force specializing in these vehicles, which advises potential customers based on their needs. “Since last year we have exclusive windows for buses and trucks, where stakeholders can have a close experience with these vehicles,” says Escobar.

Bagan done something similar, importer of Volvo trucks, offering fully customized vehicles according to customer needs. “We do not offer generic or truck with a standard configuration, but also provides advice to the firm to acquire that needs to be more profitable,” said Carlos Vargas, assistant manager of Bagan.

This strategy has transcended to the aftermarket, where the brand has implemented a road assistance service that allows drivers to communicate at any time through a hotline for technical support or to report any failure. “All our vehicles are monitored from our factory in Curitiba (Brazil), where they look all cases and provide immediate solution,” said Flavio Domingues, Volvo trucks representative for the Andean Region, Central America and the Caribbean.

Chevrolet Colmotores, meanwhile, committed to having a large portfolio of vehicles, that allows customers to find one that meets your needs. In this case, the brand appeals to the broad support and representation of spare parts for trucks that have in Colombia.

Precisely, Chevrolet forward a strategy of “maintenance kits’, through which homeowners can perform maintenance or replacement parts cheaply and directly with the company. “With time services, qualified and with more responsiveness in the supply of parts for vehicles are always maintained in productive activity,” says a company official.

For industry experts, the construction of infrastructure will be a driving segment for this year. In this regard, they noted that the dump trucks show a positive trend in sales, given the high need exists to move construction materials and land clearance. Then there is the fact that such vehicles are exempt from chatarrización policies, which begins to be perceived as a tax that raises the price of the trucks.

According to Vargas, to the extent that enabled start new infrastructure, such as double lanes will increase the speed gear and vehicles will be required to provide security technology features and more advanced, they also mean less use of fuel efficiency and greater comfort for the crew.

“Our line of trucks FH, for example, includes an integrated engine brake, which allows more control during steep descents and eliminates the need to use the brake, so always be cold for situations that require it” says Domingues.

Also, the trucks have started to include passive safety systems and active to protect the lives of both occupants and persons outside the vehicle. In this regard, with applications underrun: if the star small car in front or behind, will not get under the truck.

The past was the best year for the segment of trucks and vans. According Econometrics, commercial freight cars showed a decline in sales equivalent to 54% over last year, compared with 2008, the largest in the automotive sector.

For completeness, the market share rose from 8% to only 4.3%. “Just to illustrate, we sell about 7,000 units in 2008, to just over 3,000 in 2009. With the work being carried out, this year we hope to return to revenue levels that we had two years ago,” said Carlos Vargas, of Bagan.

In fact, several internal and external factors converged to drop the segment. For example, given the global economic crisis, a lot of companies chose not to make new investments in vehicle purchase or replacement of its fleet.

This was compounded by the decline of trade with Venezuela, which ended up displacing a portion of the fleet of cargo to other regions and different niches for the carriage of goods. “Now we find that many of the trucks have moved into mining areas, where they have been conditioned to transport materials,” says Escobar, Nissan Distributor.

In fact, exports of goods by land through the office of Cucuta fell 39.5% during 2009 from U.S. $ 3,987 million in December 2008 to $ 2.414 million in the same month of 2009. According to DANE, the movement of goods at the border fell 25.2% to reach 848,788 metric tons in December.

For completeness, a representative of Colmotores says that policies implemented by the Government as the policy, also stopped many of the opportunities for entering new products to market. This regulation imposes a cost overrun in the price of each new vehicle and is intended to definitively state fund to replace old trucks.

Manufacturers and distributors are aware that some of these problems not disappear overnight. However, they begin to look for the strengths of its own products and organizations to avoid suffering the same segment stumbled last year.

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