The Hindu Business Line : Leyland to float company to trade in used trucks

ASHOK Leyland proposes to promote a company that would trade in second-hand trucks, the company's Managing Director, Mr R. Seshasayee, confirmed to Business Line.

The move has been on the cards for more than a year now. He said that the company would be set up this financial year.

The used truck trading company is a part of Ashok Leyland's initiatives to help customers do well in their own businesses.

In December 2004, the company announced the setting up of Ashley Transport Services Ltd to provide integrated freight information exchange.

Ashok Leyland had then said that Ashley Transport Services was "intended to enhance the customer relationships with transport operators which will support the long term business development for the company (Ashok Leyland)."

The next step is to set up a used truck trading company.

In future, Ashok Leyland also intends to provide fleet management services to customers.

All these are being done at Ashok Leyland under a project it calls `Market Transformation Mission'.

The idea behind the project is to go much beyond selling the customer a truck and offering after-sales services.

It involves understanding what drives his (customer's) business and helping him do better there.

For example, one of the objectives is `how to improve the vehicle uptime' at the customer's end.

It might require a new engineering of the product, but Ashok Leyland could also say, "don't worry, we will guarantee you an uptime".

That guarantee could come in the form of keeping a vehicle as a stand-by, in case the customer's truck is being overhauled.

"We need to understand, map the customer's business, understand the drivers, understand what we can do to improve the viability and deliver those products and measure the impact of those products," Mr Seshasayee said.

The new company to trade in second-hand trucks is towards the same objective.

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