2017-03-01
Making a difference with a unique service strategy
Joelson Costa Rodrigues knows every nut and bolt of the massive vehicles in his care, or his ‘children’ as he tenderly calls them. In a corner of the warehouse covering several thousand square meters, the 25-year-old changes loose tires, adjusts faulty regulators, inspects oil chains and checks headlights. He is a maintenance engineer at KION Brazil and works in the warehouse of French-headquartered home improvement and gardening retailer, Leroy Merlin, in São Bernardo do Campo. At the distribution center for Greater São Paulo, there are 42 STILL rental trucks in use. His work is part of the company's rental truck service strategy where company-trained KION technicians are permanently based at customer sites and keep the rental fleet in top condition. Thanks to this systematic preventive action, hardly any of the machinery ever stands idle due to major repair work. Spare parts are fitted at scheduled times and customers benefit from increased reliability. And it saves them time and money.
The economic crisis in Brazil has many business owners wondering whether it’s worth investing thousands of reais in buying a new truck, or whether it would be better to rent the same vehicle with maintenance included. “I can replace the entire rental fleet every 36 months, so I’ve always have new vehicles in operation,” explains operation manager Eduardo Ferreira de Souza, who looks after 14 rental customers for KION brands Linde MH and STILL. KION now has over 2,600 rental trucks in Brazil, with almost a third of the company’s revenue coming from rentals. Ferreira de Souza goes on to explain, “For a time, Leroy Merlin had to get by on fewer trucks due to the crisis. That wasn’t a problem. We also waived the annual price adjustment for the customer since the vehicles spent fewer hours in operation due to the downturn.”