We have a service guarantee of 48 hours that we will put your machine back or we will give you Rs. 1000 per hour per day.

– Jalaj Gupta

Business Head, Commercial Vehicles Business Unit, Mahindra & Mahindra

What is your focus at Excon this year?

We have unveiled G75 Smart. It is a 2-axle grader and we believe it is a category creation that we have done because 48% of the roads in the country are rural roads and if we have to talk truly about connecting the country and developing the roads, then the rural roads work still needs to happen. That is the focus of the government from Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana and all those schemes a lot of money is getting pumped in there. What happens today is for construction of these roads, the big contractor sub-contracts it to a small contractor. And in the absence of any proper grader being available, uses the tractor grader as a jugaad to do the grading for these particular roads. Now the unveiling of G75 Smart is a category creator because it is the ideal grader which can be used for these rural roads grading specifically. Now, it will give a chance to the small-time contractor to also bid themselves for this particular process by showing the equipment that they are well-equipped to handle this contract. Not only that, in case they get sub-contracting done, instead of using manual labour or using jugaad technology, they will use application suitable for that particular road which will be both cost and productivity efficient. We are the first ones in this particular category. It is going to take a lot of time to educate the customer. We are going to upgrade the customer who is used to buying an agricultural tractor and various implements on that to somehow manage that. To upgrade that customer and to pay couple of lakhs rupees higher, to appreciate productivity increase and the efficiency increase is going to take some doing and we are willing to do that. That is what is important in unveiling and balance or running products that we have displayed at Excon. On truck side, we have done tippers and fuel bowsers and on the construction side we have done our graders and backhoe loaders.

How is the price factor going to play the role as these products have been introduced for the rural areas?

Right now, we have not declared the prices as we are now seeding the machines. So, our strategy is very simple. There are two machines we have seeded in. Customers have been using from the last 2-3 months. That is where we are connecting our real time validation and testing. And, our plan is that in next two months, we will seed in about 10 to 12 more machines. We will gather feedback over the next couple of months or so and somewhere around festival time of September or October or so by that time, we would have polished all our customer feedback which is available and that is when we will launch and at that point, we will declare the pricing too. The typical BSIV tractor grader would cost a customer anywhere around between Rs. 20-21 lakh. Challenge is at what price point you will flip and upgrade to this particular thing. This is what I can declare. Maybe closer to the launch we will declare the price.

How have you upgraded this grader in terms of technology compared to earlier ones?

For us, this was easy because we have two graders sitting above it. There is a 95horsepower grader and 75 horsepower 3 axle grader. So actually, we are coming down. It is a 2 axle grader. So technologically it is not a challenge for us. The engine transmission is 74 horsepower grader. It is similar. It has a blade which is 10-feet long. It is the same blade we are using even in our other graders, the next level of grader. So, technically it is a7-tonne machine. So, technically there is not much of a challenge. One thing I want you to know is that in all our BSIV machines, we are giving something called Imax. So, it is a telematics, it will pass away as a telematic device. Suppose you are sitting here and your machine is running in Thrissur. On your mobile, you can know if anyone tries to steal fuel. Suppose your machine is there for 20 days, you can note day-wise how many hours my machine did what kind of application. Suppose you want your machine to remain in a particular area you can Geofence your machine and whenever machine crosses that fence, you will get an alarm. It is much more than GPS telematic device. You can do your complete productivity. In trucks also, we use this telematics. There technology is that the owner calls operator and analyses that he has done harsh breaking today 41 times which is higher. It is that particular telematics device which we are giving factory fitted with every BSIV machine along with a one-year free subscription from us. That is something we are trying to upgrade the way this particular business is done.

How many dealer points and touch points do you have?

We have 50 dealers and 150 touch points.

The performance of the machine is based on the consumption of fuel or is it on operating side also?

It is on operating side also. Suppose overheating is happening. Suppose there are some parts which are limited in number, suppose something wrong is happening. Those alerts are available. Suppose there is a schedule service or something that is about to go wrong, some preventative maintenance point of view, those alerts will come on the mobile. From that side too, you can use this.

Whenever you are launching new products, you need skilled labours to educate them. What are your skilling initiatives for the operators? 

Absolutely and that is where the biggest challenge that this industry will face from 2021 to 2024, it will jump from BSIII to BSV. Two emissions but at the ground operating person or the operating level, if I may dare say the customer mindset will that get upgraded for two emissions?

What does the end-user get after-market service? Initiatives for after-market services?

We have given the service guarantee. That is 48 hours we will put your machine back or we will give you Rs. 1000 per hour per day. That gives the confidence we have on our after-sales. That is backed by dealer physical infrastructure as well as the spare part vans. S, the machine is not coming, we will go to the machine. So backed by this, we are very confident we will be able to fulfil that service well.

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