Scania Assistance has been operating in Australia and New Zealand for many years, with one 1800-free call number connecting a customer with a vehicle that has failed to proceed to a Scania Assistance centre staffed by experts. Up to now, that Assistance centre, which operates 24/7/365, has been based overseas.

In the interests of providing even more detailed and efficient assistance, Scania Australia has established its own centre in Melbourne, via a team of five dedicated Scania Assistance service coordinators who can help drivers and operators out of a tight spot, across the Australian continent as well as in New Zealand.

“Scania Assistance stands ready to help any Scania owner or driver who has had a vehicle breakdown, for example a flat battery, or a warning light or message that instructs the vehicle to be stopped safely. We then contact a Scania branch or Scania authorised independent dealer who can provide help at the side of the road using their roadside assistance van and technician,” says Brendon Parry, Scania Assistance supervisor for Australia and New Zealand.

“We are the interface between a distressed customer or driver at the roadside and the technician dispatched to analyse and hopefully fix the problem in situ. We provide the customer with one point of contact throughout the process, and keep them informed as we are updated by the technician at the roadside, or via the data he is providing using the Scania OnScene app. In some cases where a vehicle is stranded in a remote location, using the Scania Communicator we can pinpoint the vehicle’s location, sending the technician the exact coordinates, which again reduces downtime,” Brendon says. “In most cases, the truck can be fixed at the roadside.

“Now with the establishment of the local Australian centre, we will have more local knowledge and more local options for helping customers in need. Over the past decade Scania in Australia and New Zealand has been delivering record numbers of trucks, which will create greater demand for assistance services. Trucks, buses and marine and industrial engines are mechanical devices and sometimes they break down. Despite our laser-like focus on uptime and scheduled servicing, our vehicle operators accept there may be unplanned stoppages and what they are interested in is how quickly we can get them rolling again,” he says. “Our focus has always been on uptime and ensuring the delivery gets through.

“From the opening of the centre in Melbourne we will be operating a new generation system that allows us to access more data to match the customer and vehicle, as well as identify fault codes, all of which will help speed the resolution of the issue by the technician at the scene,” says Scania Assistance project manager, Andrew Greenwood, who is based in the UK.

“In the future we anticipate the customer will be able to report a fault or breakdown using the Scania Driver app, and obviously that will bring a lot more stable data into play and make it easier for the nominated technician to see the exact details of the vehicle as well as potentially its service history and the fault codes generated,” Andrew says. “Further down the track we may be able to use live data from trucks to predict when breakdowns might occur and be able to avoid unplanned mid-journey roadside stops.”

The new centre is located at Scania’s Australian national warehouse facility in Campbellfield. If Australian customers need assistance but are a long distance from one of the nine Scania company-owned workshops, the nationwide network of more than 60 independent authorised dealers can be called into action. In New Zealand, the same applies.

“The message is simply that if you drive a Scania you’re never alone. Scania Assistance is just a phone call away,” says Brendon Parry.

“As one of the few original equipment manufacturers’ owned and operated assistance systems in Australia and New Zealand, we have unrivalled access to technicians, vehicle information and spare parts to get trucks back on the road as soon as possible. By employing the new generation system with all its future development potential, we are well placed to enhance customer uptime even further,” Brendon says.