Scania delivers pride and joy
Delivering pride and joy in the form of new cars is what drives Smeaton Grange, NSW-based Auto Freight, car carriers with a focus on premium service and professional performance.
Running a fleet of eight modern Scania prime movers pulling seven-car transporter trailers, business owners brothers Edwin and Kevin Nassar value the service, care and responsiveness of the Scania Prestons team keeping them on the road looking smart and delivering for their customers.
“We love our Scania trucks and they do work very well for us, but to be honest it is the relationship we have with Kaashief Boonzaier (Scania State Sales Manager for New South Wales and ACT) and his team at Prestons that keeps us coming back,” Kevin Nassar says.
“We have had excellent service from Scania. The repair and maintenance contracts we have used have worked well for us, preserving our uptime. Kaash is always there for us, whatever we need, helping us to stay on track.
“The trucks cover around 200,000 km a year each. They’re running six days a week and some of them work around the clock, so we cannot afford unplanned downtime. Our customers rely on us to deliver these cars,” he says.
“During the Melbourne Port crisis which slowed car processing we moved 800 cars from New South Wales to Melbourne in a few weeks. On a normal day we’re collecting cars from Port Kembla wharf and pulling them up Mount Ousley Road to Minto or one of the other holding yards. We’re not pulling very heavy loads, but they are valuable and smoothness and power are important,” Kevin says.
“Most of the work is delivery to holding yards but we do sometimes deliver direct to dealers, and that’s where the tight turning circle and great visibility helps, coping with congested streets and limited access. The gearbox smoothness is very important when manoeuvring, especially with expensive premium cars on the trailer, and the adaptive cruise control helps make long trips less fatiguing. The programming of the upshifts is also very intuitive, allowing the truck to maintain its speed on steep climbs.
“We have had Scania driver training with new (truck) deliveries and we put in an effort with our drivers, and in return they really look after the trucks. Most of the trucks are spotless inside, that’s a sign that the drivers love their trucks,” Kevin says.
“The Scanias are great on fuel, and the new ones are even better, improving about 10% over even the previous Scanias, which is massive for our business financials.
“We have two new R 560 SUPERs, some R 540s and an R 620 V8, with a few newer Scania trucks coming later this year. Moving forward, our fleet will continue to be Scania,” Kevin says.
“We love how they drive, and how efficient the Scania Retarder is, and the trucks in general look awesome,” he says.
“While Auto Freight may be a relatively new player in the car carrying industry, our involvement in this field dates back to 2009. When we started Auto Freight our main focus was on presenting ourselves as premium and reliable operators, so there’s a lot of attention to the appearance of our trucks. Some of our customers love having a standout truck deliver vehicles to their premises. Also having new equipment on the road means less breakdowns so our customers vehicles are never delayed.
“We didn’t want to just have stickers on the doors, so we have gone for a distinctive design using bright blue which really stands out,” he says.
Kaashief Boonzaier says a premium brand such as Auto Freight is the perfect match for Scania.
“Auto Freight shares our values of being a reliable business partner, presenting well and focussing on customer satisfaction. We’re always happy to see their trucks in for service and also even happier when they trade them in for new models. The new SUPER R 560s they have just taken into the fleet will deliver them even better fuel efficiency, which is a benefit they can take directly to their bottom line. We’re saying at least 8% better than the previous Scania engines which were already very efficient.
“When you’re covering 200,000 km a year, the fuel efficiency savings really add up,” Kaash says.
