Rafael de Sousa Alvarenga, Director – Services, Scania CV India.

How do you assess the growth prospects of the mining sector as a whole, and how the demand-supply scenario of mining trucks look like?

While the COVID-19 lockdown has disrupted the country, the impact on the mining industry has relatively been lesser. Baring few obvious disruptions, we didn’t see any major prolonged closure of the mines during the lockdown.

For couple of months the coal offtake for power generation had reduced drastically due to lower electricity consumption. However, it was well balanced by having more focused removal of overburden.

Commercial mining project allocation has also seen some traction in the last few weeks. Through Atma-Nirbhar Bharat there is an impetus for substitution of imported coal and improving infrastructure. The results are visible in the form of coal demand from the non-power segments. With resumption of economic and industrial activities the electricity demand has bounced back well.

Furthermore, our customer operations have also seen a positive uptick and so have their expectations and requirements from Scania India.

Coal India expects thermal coal demand to continue for the next 10 to 15 years. Accordingly, it plans to increase the production to 1b tons over the next 3 to 4 years. These developments bode well for our demand in the long term.

On the supply side, after the initial hiccups, the entire value chain is fast adjusting to the new normal. Cautiously and gradually our operations have resumed, and we are able to meet the customer demands. 

During this pandemic what are the innovative solution you have launched to service your customers?

Even during the multiple lockdowns, our teams were present at mining sites and coal logistic hubs to ensure customer operations run efficiently. Since electricity is an essential service and the continuous supply of coal to power plants is critical, our teams ensured they played their part in the supply chain. We are extremely proud of their resilience and dedication.

The Scania Service Solution Centre focused its energies on optimal remote solutions for mining customers, an offering that was already a key but much more relevant today. 

Customer profitability is core to us at Scania. Cashflow has become a major issue for our customers. As a long-term partner, we are actively working along with various financiers for developing various innovative packages to assist and help our customers not only to buy new dumpers but also to service them to ensure smooth operations.

How IoT, telematics and other such technologies is reshaping the trucking industry, especially fleet management and service and maintenance areas?  Also tell us the solutions offered in this space?

Smart and safe transport is one of the three integral pillars of our Sustainable Transport offering. We believe, Connectivity is a key enabler, allowing more efficient logistical flows and greater filling rates. Safety aspects can also be significantly enhanced by digitalisation and automation, when applied in driver assistance technologies for instance.

Since 2011, all Scania vehicles are equipped with the computer Scania Communicator as standard. The Communicator collects and analyses data for us to provide our customers, and in turn their customers, with ideas and solutions on how to improve efficiency in the transport value chain.

Scania’s early introduction of connectivity is paying off enormously – benefiting both customers’ uptime and efficiency, as well as our innovation and product development.

Connectivity enables us to study relevant data for each industry and type of customer, information that feeds into our offering of several specific application-focused and efficiency-enhancing products and solutions. As new technology and the shift develop, data is a vital part of knowing what the customer is carrying, how they are operating, what terrain they drive on, how the vehicle is being used and how it is performing. Scania has all this already.

Through offerings like service planning we provide an overview of all fleet, along with their maintenance plans, including a calendar for keeping track of maintenance and repairs. With the Scania Fleet Management App, customers can get access to the defect reporting function and their drivers can instantly report problems and supply photographs directly from the site of the incident. Defect reports are also automatically reported from the vehicle. It helps in offering quick fast diagnostics and reliable solutions to ensure optimum operations at highest profitability.

Holistically speaking, we offer to take the responsibility of lowering fuel consumption, reducing wear and maintenance needs, all the way to automating tedious administrative work, so our customers can keep the focus on running their core business.

Could you brief us on the unique features of your range of trucks offered for mining sector for optimizing production and uptime?

With increased competition and narrowed margins there has been immense pressure to scale productivity from the operators while maintaining tight control on the operating costs.

To bridge the gap of demand and supply to increase profitability and maintain low operating systems, we offer our customers a tailor-made, sustainable, durable solution, and position our self for meeting the future customer requirements.

With the strategic introduction of Scania’s world-class range of heavy dumpers in India we reiterate our commitment to the country. We are committed for helping Indian customers achieve higher levels of profitability, safety, efficiency and productivity in their businesses. 

Heavy Dumper offers following benefits to the customers.

• 18% Higher Payload with 23 Cu.m. Rock Body
• Up to 5% Higher Uptime
• Stronger Aggregates for Longer Life
• Swedish Crash Test Certified Cabin for Enhanced Safety

New Heavy Dumper is proving to be a major success not only in India but in all the global mining markets. With the New Generation products and solutions, we are actively acquiring new customers and diversifying into new segments.

Also tell us the initiatives taken to up the skill and comfort of the drivers?

Scania delivers robust and tailor-made products and services, reinforcing safety, sustainability as well as business value for our customers. At Scania safety comes first. Safety for the driver requires a comprehensive approach to cab design and safety testing. Safety for the surroundings involves broader design and construction aspects.

To this effect, Scania launched the NTG G440 8×4 Heavy Dumper, a product engineered with superior design tailored to suit customer needs and increase customer profitability. The XT or Extra Tough, range is a result of Scania’s heritage, timeless engineering and extensive field testing, creating vehicles robust and reliable like no others. XT is powered by the widest range on the market, available on our entire cab range and engine programme with endless configurations available to be tailored to suit your tough needs.

Working in mining environments poses risks not just to drivers but to everyone in the surroundings. Succeeding in these tough conditions require special attention to be given to safety and with the Scania NTG XT, one is always safe, never sorry. The New Generation products are equipped with improved and safer auxiliary exhaust braking system. This can now work in two steps as per the requirement. To control the vehicle better, exhaust brake also works in automatic operations.

Swedish crash test standards are among the most stringent in the world and uses the same cab for all the tests. The high-tensile steel cab structure of the NTG Heavy Dumper offers an outstanding crash performance and has easily surpassed the cab crash tests with ease.

The NTG Heavy Dumper also offers better direct visibility by moving the driver’s position forward and sideways, lowering the instrument panel and redesigning the A-pillars, making drivers feel in control. Scania vehicles have a reputation of world class handling and maneuverability, and with this range it has been improved even further. Due to the new steering design, front axle and cab suspension, handling and steering is smoother and more stable than ever.

Dumper drivers at mining sites work long hours in tough conditions, often spending most of their time in the cabin. The cabin of the NTG Heavy Dumper is designed for maximum driver comfort with air conditioners and comfortable seats to combat driver fatigue and tiredness that can often cause major and minor accidents. 

We also offer various training programs, coaching and tools to help not only experienced drivers but new ones too. Our connected vehicles also provide us with information to help maintain road craft, to maximize fuel efficiency, focus on safety and reduce carbon emissions.

Another such innovative use of technology that supports aftermarket support is Scania driver evaluation and upskilling portal, which analyses the driver behavior on certain key parameters and grades the drivers as per their performance. These parameters include Idling, Speeding, Anticipation, Coaching, Hill Driving and driving with cruise control.

This tool is further used by Scania’s driver coaching team to upskill the drivers to make them safer and fuel efficient on the road.

How do you foresee the growth prospects and how geared up your company to meet the challenges in the post covid era?

The COVID-19 pandemic has adversely impacted every segment of the society and the implications of it are widespread. We anticipate it will take a while for things to normalize but we are already witnessing a steady recovery.

Through various reforms and policies Atma-Nirbhar Bharat, imported coal substitution and commercial mining we see a good demand scenario in the mid to long term horizon. With infrastructure, road development very much on the Government’s agenda we believe the long-term growth story for India is very well intact.

The automotive industry is currently facing some tough times; however, we see these as more of a significant but limited time deviation and, we are optimistic about the future. India remains an important market for Scania. We are a global company firmly committed to investing and growing in India.

Any additional information you would like to share to add value to the readers is welcome.

Services are integral to Scania’s offering. Inspired by the product modularisation concept, we tailor services to meet each customer’s needs. Quick access to parts, speedy repairs, driver coaching, and tailor-made maintenance plans are among the services Scania offers to enhance the vehicles’ performance and the customers’ profitability. Scania provides tailored solutions for many applications that offer improved efficiency, high performance and lower environmental impact.

To deliver the customer promise we launched the Scania Service Solutions Centre. We offer the tailor-made solutions based on the costumer’s business needs which are designed to deliver real and sustainable benefits. With this service solution center, we want to enable our customers to focus on their core business and not worry about fleet management. Our Service Centre optimizes the use of technology to provide our customers with solutions that best suit their needs.

With different routes, driving styles and environments, we customize our maintenance plans to best suit these parameters to provide maximum uptime, increase productivity and decrease disruptions in daily operations.

Under the service center, we have launched five main initiatives:

Scania Exchange: We offer parts that are the same premium quality as brand-new parts and are fully supported by the same warranties. This helps us contribute to our sustainability targets as well

Accidental Repairs: Accidents create more problems than just a dent in the vehicle, it can mean lost business too. Skilled technicians are trained on Scania vehicles to the highest possible standards, our state-of-the-art are fitted with the most modern and up-to-date equipment to give our customers’ an accurate, safe and quality repair.

Fleet Management Services: FMS or Fleet Management Services helps Scania collect on board data including driving style, productivity and economy. This level of tracking and diagnostics can bring significant benefits in increased uptime, improved safety and reduced operating costs. FMS allows customers to improve driving styles and reduce risks and costs by tracking gear selection, thereby improving the efficiency of the same. Tracking breaking behavior and using smart data collection to control speed allows FMS to reduce wear on renewables and increase productivity as well as significantly improve fuel economy and reduce maintenance costs.

Driver Coaching: With the effort to move from experience to excellence, we offer world-class Scania Driver Training, Coaching and Tools for our Scania drivers. These trained drivers increase efficiency, help reduce road accidents, and drive uptime of the vehicles. One-on-one coaching is provided making sure a customer business benefits from their efforts.

Site Optimization: With the Scania Site Optimization service, we conduct a thorough study and optimization of the customer site to ensure, all our products, services and solutions are customized to customer and global safety standards. The improved uptime and higher productivity of the NTG Heavy Dumper, when compared to other products in its class, translates into a lower number of vehicles needed. With a reduced fleet size, the probability for accidents and mishaps also reduces, giving customers higher chances of uninterrupted vehicle running time leading to increased productivity.

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