The South African new-truck market grew by 4.6%, to 27 492 units, in 2018 compared with 2017, says Hino South Africa (SA) VP Ernie Trautmann.

Within this market, medium commercial vehicle (MCV) sales increased by 0.3%, to 7 913 units, with heavy commercial vehicle (HCV) sales expanding by 1.7%, to 5 393 units.

Sales of extra-heavy commercial vehicles (EHCVs) jumped by 9.5%, to 13 116 units, which means it now makes up roughly half of the local new truck market in South Africa.

New bus sales in South Africa dropped by 2.6% in 2018, to 1 070 units.

“Halfway through the year the market was still 4% to 5% down. The year started atrociously, but then, luckily, normalised in the second half,” says Trautmann.

He says there is a clear indication of growth in the sales of fully automatic trucks compared with manual trucks in the domestic market.

Hino SA saw its total truck sales grow by 6.7% in 2018, to 3 202 units. However, if the Dyna truck – now selling as a light commercial vehicle – is included in the tally, sales increased by 17.3%, to 4 318 units.

Hino SA’s truck market share increased from 11.4% in 2017, to 11.6% in 2018, excluding Dyna. The company’s smallest bite of the market was in the EHCV market, where it had a 3.1% share, compared with 21.6% in the MCV and 20.1% in the HCV markets.

The company’s after-sales parts performance increased from R346-million in 2017, to R354-million in 2018.

Trautmann is equally proud of the 662 drivers from 77 companies trained by Hino SA in 2018.

“We would probably need to double this number again. Training sells trucks as we can guarantee 10% fuel saving per driver.”

The 2019 Market
Looking ahead, Trautmann expects the truck market to repeat last year’s pattern.

“It will be the same scenario. Everyone will sit back and wait until the election is over in May, which means we’ll lose around five months of the year.”
Trautmann expects South Africa’s new truck market to reach 27 500 units in 2019, which is a mere eight-unit increase on 2018.

He expects a flat market across all segments, from MCV to buses.

“This market is going nowhere until we get investment certainty. We need growth, infrastructure.”

Trautmann expects Hino SA to increase sales by 7.7% in 2019, reaching 3 450 units. Including Dyna sales, the local arm of the Japanese truck maker could reach 4 950 units.

Reaching 5 000-unit sales a year will be a “big game changer for us”, he adds.

With the Hino truck plant, in Durban, currently at capacity working one shift plus some overtime, the facility would have to move to two shifts to accommodate the increase in volumes.

Additional volumes built for the rest-of-Africa market may also put pressure on plant capacity.

Hino SA last year started assembly of trucks for four countries outside the Southern African Customs Union, namely Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique and Malawi. This added around 120 units to plant demand.

A Dedicated EHCV Department
With 405 units sold in the EHCV market in 2018, and much room to grow, Hino SA is restructuring the company to create a specialised EHCV department within the company.

“Our share is at 3%. We need to grow this. This is where the growth opportunity sits for us, but it is a different type of business,” says Trautmann.

Hino SA also plans to launch ‘Hinomatics’ in 2019. This will be the company’s own locally developed telematics solution.

As a base product it will serve as a tracking mechanism, with a variety of services then available to the customer, such as driver and load monitoring.

The launch of Hino Financial Services is also on the table for 2019.

Yet another development is the introduction of a supply chain management training course for Hino staff, so that “we can become a consultant to the customer”, notes Trautmann.

Hino SA is also working on executing its parent company’s alternative fuel strategy on local soil.

Hino has promised to make four alternative fuel platforms available by 2025, namely diesel hybrid, plug-in hybrid, fuel cell and full electric.

Hino SA has been approved to operate a hybrid truck in a controlled environment this year.

The company is also faced with the challenge of rapidly moving from level seven empowerment, to level four.

Gazing further into the future, Trautmann indicates that Hino SA wants to sell 7 550 units a year, Dyna included, in South Africa by 2025.