That's precisely the question one of my prospective clients asked me during a routine visit to his offices, and one we'll try to answer. Today, several truck brands are vying for market share in Africa. Among them are Mercedes, Renault, MAN, Volvo, Iveco, DAF, Scania, Howo, Sachsman, and others. Marketing arguments compete fiercely to convince potential customers: fuel consumption, robustness, price, and so on. But for us, these criteria alone aren't enough. Since a truck's primary function is to move, it would be useful to examine the factors that could immobilize it.
1 – Lack of After-Sales Service. What would be the point of buying a truck, even the best one in the world, if there's no after-sales service available in your country? In many countries, dealerships for the brands mentioned above are only located in a few major cities. This complicates the maintenance and repair of trucks outside these areas. Furthermore, it's said that these dealerships charge rather high prices, making them prohibitively expensive for most truck owners. Therefore, when making your purchase, it would be wise to choose a brand whose repair services are readily available throughout the country.
2 – Spare Parts Availability. We have seen in some countries users immobilize their trucks due to a need for maintenance parts. What would they do with wear parts? Since downtime reduces profitability, it would be wise to purchase trucks with proven parts availability in your local market. Alternatively, the user must have the capacity to manage an up-to-date inventory specific to their vehicles. The option of importing parts by air is frequently mentioned. However, this takes at least 5 days and is quite expensive.
3 – Sensitivity to Fuel of Imprecise Quality: Although Africa is a major fuel producer, the quality available at our service stations is questionable. Almost 80% of the trucks used in Africa are imported second-hand vehicles, and therefore do not necessarily meet the requirements of our region. While in Europe, for example, fuel with a maximum sulfur content of 50 PPM is found, it is not uncommon in our countries to find fuel with over 1000 PPM. This means fuel at least 20 times more contaminated, which negatively affects the injection systems of most trucks. Some brands tend to be more resistant to this phenomenon than others.
Conclusion: A truck is made to be driven. Nothing more, nothing less. It's always better to have a truck in good condition waiting to be loaded than to have a load waiting for a truck in good condition. The criteria above allow us to determine the most suitable truck for our country. Based on these criteria, please leave a comment indicating the most suitable truck brand for your country. If we've missed any criteria, please feel free to remind us.
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