Buying new trucks online. Is this the future?

A Scania Poland customer has become the first customer to buy one of the company’s trucks by using a new digital sales site. Styku Transport, a haulier based in north-western Poland, used the online tool to order a 4x2 prime mover with 13-litre engine and Scania Super driveline, which was delivered in December.

It is the first sale to result from Scania Poland’s pilot of the new service, which is being developed by the Sales Digitalisation Team at Scania HQ in Sweden and aims to simplify the purchasing process for those customers who want a more straightforward truck specification.

The pilot has seen the Sales, Pre-Sales and IT teams in Poland identify likely customers who are nearing the end of a lease period or have reached a certain mileage with their current vehicle.

The team then sends them a link to a truck that they have proactively identified would suit the customer’s needs and tastes, allowing the customer to tailor about 30 different choices according to their need, ranging from vehicle components to maintenance programs, connected services and payment method. This is how Styku Transport concluded the deal for its next truck.

“Buying online is coming. We need to embrace the benefits and not fear it,” says Bruce Atkinson, one of the core team of Concept Developers that have been working on this digital pilot since it was initiated in early 2022.

“Historically, our industry and our customers have been quite conservative when it comes to the customer digitalisation journey,” adds Emil Jungnelius, Senior Concept Developer at Sales Digitalisation. “But we all know digitalisation is happening and it will help all of us in different ways.”

Both Bruce and Emil also emphasise that the tool is designed to act as a complement to, rather than a replacement for, existing sales teams. By moving the simple deals online, it will free up the Scania salesforce’s time and opportunities for working on the more involved sales that have multiple and complex customer specifications.

“With battery-electric vehicles coming through we’ll require even more time from the sales team to set up the vehicles, including the charging aspects,” Emil explains. “We want to help our sales teams and take some of the strain off them, so they can focus on the complex deals.”

At Scania Poland, there’s a real sense of pride at having the first customer to buy a Scania truck online, according to Adrian Lapczynski, who is now a Sales Specialist but was previously a Product Specialist at the Pre-Sales department when the pilot began in early 2022.

“We are really proud of this milestone, and we are proud that we have such an innovative team,” he says. “We also appreciate that our colleagues from Scania CV AB see us as an open market for this innovation.”

In many cases there has been particular appreciation of the technical knowledge and support they get and, while Adrian admits that there was a little bit of concern to begin with among sales colleagues about the new digital tool, the Concept Development team and the whole Polish organisation have worked hard to ensure that the sales teams realise that they are still incredibly important to Scania’s future success.

“We have had sales staff working for Scania Poland for 25 years. There are a lot of sales people with very long experience and good relationships with our customers, and we cannot lose these relationships,” he says.

“So this is just an additional way of selling for the simpler deals to free up the sales staff and give them more time for the other, more complicated transactions. I think this tool saves the customer time in these simpler situations. If you know exactly which type of vehicle you need, you can specify the vehicle in 10 minutes, then click, and then you’re done.”

Related reading:
Scania and Rio Tinto develop autonomous trucks in WA
Scania in hydrogen backflip
Scania 25 P electric: Quickspin

Adrian and his Polish colleagues, plus Emil Jungnelius and Bruce Atkinson are all united in the hope that this new milestone marks the start of an important new way of selling.

“We’re working together to try to improve the digital touchpoint in the sales process for customers,” says Bruce, while Emil adds: “Perhaps some customers will still be reluctant to buy online, but we know that we need to try to find out the best way, and I think everyone in the industry is trying to figure out the same thing at the moment.”

Asked whether this concept would be coming to Australia, a Scania Australia spokesman said: “I don’t know of any plans for Australia, but it would be an interesting concept, though probably more complex given our ADRs (Australian Design Rules).”