Hino: embracing change in a digital world

The digital revolution is in full swing and has reshaped all manner of industries in a relatively short period of time, and freight and logistics is no exception.

Satellite navigation, telematics, the push towards autonomous vehicles, alternative power sources and the wider effects of climate change, urbanisation and e-commerce have all played a part in changing the way we transport goods, and truck brands are scrambling to capitalise on fresh opportunities and not get left behind.

One brand that’s doing much to embrace this period of transition is Hino. The Japanese truck manufacturer has moved smartly in recent years to introduce new safety technologies such as electronic stability control and autonomous emergency braking to its trucks, but it's also investing heavily in telematics and in cleaner power sources, while changing the way it approaches and maintains its customer relationships.

Trucksales recently caught up with Hino Australia's General Manager – Brand and Franchise, Bill Gillespie, who said the brand's relationship with Woolworths, which operates a fleet of 550 light-duty Hino trucks, was a great example of how the nature of the truck business has changed in recent years.

"When you talk to an organisation like Woolworths, they're not buying trucks," he said.

"That's not how they see it at all. Instead, it's a business solution to, 'I need to move millions of dollars-worth of groceries around and I need a partner with whom I can do that'.

"So if you look like you're up for that idea then they're up for that idea, but if you're only in the business of selling trucks, they're not interested in that business. And that's really why Hino is morphing its business into being more like that [a business solution]."

Hino recently rolled out a new multimedia unit across its light-, medium- and heavy-duty product lines, which is the result of a collaboration with the firm's locally based technology partner, Directed Technologies.

Demonstrated to trucking media at the recent media launch of Hino's new 500 Series Standard Cab range, the unit can accommodate all sorts of third-party apps, including those unique to a particular customer or fleet operator, with over-the-air updates allowing everything to be done remotely. This minimises downtime, while giving customers the bespoke software they need to streamline their business and improve their bottom line.

Hino says it's currently working with Woolworths to integrate the customer's own mobile device with the multimedia unit to create even greater efficiencies, and to further reduce the fleet's fuel burn and subsequent carbon footprint.

Mr Gillespie said the greater lessons learned from such a partnership can then be applied elsewhere.

"Then you can go to someone with some certainty about the fuel usage, the carbon burnt, the footprint, and design that business around that output rather than being impacted by that after you've already built the business," he said.

Hino is currently examining the development of electric trucks through its recent strategic alliance with Volkswagen's commercial vehicle division, TRATON, and has for many years offered a hybrid light-duty truck, the 300 Series 716.

Mr Gillespie said the hybrid model is currently being evaluated by Woolworths.

"All those lessons are going to help us to be a better partner for them [Woolworths], and then you really are running a different business," he said.

"You've still got all the hard-core elements of aftersales, product design and development, but you need to have a whole other world that talks to people in this way."

Mr Gillespie said the progress gleaned from these technological advances would ultimately benefit all truck users.

"The single guy in landscaping is probably not going to care about all this, but we all know it's a trickle-down effect," he said.

"It might be five years before [these advances] impact and help him, but at some point in the future when he goes to buy a truck, we'll be able to say to him, 'Here's a thousand other landscapers in Australia who have all got that truck and here's what they do. We can benchmark you against that – would you be interested in that? What if you could integrated your MYOB account with the truck's multimedia unit, so that every time you go and fuel up the truck it automatically updates you MYOB account?' We can do that right now."

However, despite the massive push in terms of technology, it's the truck itself that remains as the foundation, says Mr Gillespie.

"All of this [technology] is great, but it has to start with great product – you cannot have a fluffy product and try and make it look better," he said.

"But if you have great QDR [Quality, Durability and Reliability], really great trucks, and you have that as a bedrock of what you're doing, you can do the rest on top.

"So whatever happens it's still a product business, but you can't think like a truck business after that – you have to think about how to partner with people and how to build those relationships.

"The biggest logistics investors in the world are [Amazon's] Jeff Bezos and [Alibaba's] Jack Ma, because without logistics you don't have a business. And that, I think, is the challenge for us as a 'humble' Japanese white truck brand – how do you morph into being something that is much more than that?

"If we can be in front of that curve, we can build a lot of partnerships out of being in front of that curve."