The presence of Scania in Tanzania started in the 1970s when Scania CV AB delivered 200 tipper trucks to the Chinese authorities to enable the construction of the Tanzania/Zambia railway line (TAZARA), and a further 100 trucks to the Tanzania Cotton Authority. MD Anders Friberg tells Simon Foulds how the company has grown the brand in East Africa.

In addition to these, there followed sales of several buses, which were delivered to the Road Transport System and Tanzania Railways Authority after the decentralisation of the East African Railways and Harbours Corporation and East Africa Community.

Scania established and registered a branch in Tanzania in 1973 for the purpose of servicing and repairing vehicles that had already been delivered into the county, and embarked on importation and stockholding of Scania heavy duty trucks, buses and spare parts.

Within a few years, Scania established its reputation through strength and reliability, generating an increase in demand. Truck sales increased, and it became necessary for Scania to establish sales and services outlets around the country. To date, Scania has sold more than 5 000 vehicles in Tanzania.

Scania has worked very closely with government organisations to promote the transport sector within the country. To minimise its operation costs and reduce the expenditure of foreign currency due to importation of complete assembled units, Scania and the government of Tanzania signed a joint venture agreement to build an assembly plant in Kibaha, approximately 40 kilometres outside the city of Dar es Salaam. In 1982, Tanzania Automobile Manufacturing Company began operations with a capacity to assemble more than 2 400 truck and bus chassis per year.

In the mid-1990s, Scania ceased operations and handed over the assembly plant to the Tanzanian government. A reduction in subsidies for vehicle assembly within the country made the venture less viable and Scania began to import ready assembled units.

Today, Scania Tanzania has an extensive network of services supporting the marque. The head office is situated in Dar es Salaam, with dealerships situated in Arusha, Mwanza, Mbeya and Tanga. There are plans for future expansion into other regions.

Competence (after sales)

We try to employ the same business model that is used across the world for Scania, thus enabling us to utilise tried and tested methods for all practices. Our technical training centre in Tanzania is familiar to a technical trainer from Europe or South Africa albeit scaled down to suit our requirements. We have a technical trainer that can speak both English and Swahili, ensuring that not one person misses the opportunity to learn the skills required for them to excel both personally and professionally. This, of course, reflects directly on the service levels we can pass on to our customers and this makes us somewhat unique among our competitors in the market in Tanzania.

All non-technical training, ranging from vehicle sales to management training, is done in South Africa.

Keeping the vehicle on the road – maximising uptime

Scania roadside assistance is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and our parts warehouse has a comprehensive stock of Scania parts to provide optimum parts availability. These are sold and distributed throughout Tanzania via our network of branches.

The company has earned an indisputable and excellent reputation in the Tanzanian market and we are very proud of the service we provide to our customer, ensuring that Scania can continue to provide the best-suited and most reliable products for the East African market.

When travelling the roads across the country it is possible to see models of Scania dating from the 1970s still working and this is a true testament to the brand’s reliability and build quality even when working in harsh environments and conditions.

Driver training and Tanzania driver competition

We are continuously coming up with new initiatives to promote road safety through driver training and vehicle awareness. Driver competitions also help to bring an element of fun while representing Scania in a very positive light.

In 2011, Scania Tanzania launched ‘The Tanzanian Driver of the Year’ competition for the first time, with the aim of highlighting the driver’s contribution to society and trying to encourage drivers into the profession. During the launch, Scania took ownership of the name ‘Tanzanian Driver of the Year’, which adds more brand awareness, thus further enhancing Scania Tanzania’s image.

The future

Thanks to a long association with the people of Tanzania, we hope to continue to be a market leader in this country for many years to come. This will include expansion without a doubt, but only where it is needed. Africa is a continent where businesses can easily fail or lose their standing if they over expose themselves and invest in unnecessary or under considered projects. This would directly affect our customers and defy our entire strategy. We have good relationships with some of the countries leading hauliers and coach operators and by catering for all our customers we aim to remain ‘king of the road’ in Tanzania.