C O M P A N Y O V E R V I E W
Volvo Group Australia
Behind the wheel of Volvo Gr Australia’s customer-centricit
Volvo Group Australia’s Peter Voorhoeve discussed the pa importance behind his, and Volvo Group Australia’s, custo business model. Written by: Andrew Rossillo Produced by: Nick Ledue
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Volvo Group aligns with key business partners such as Linfox around mutual core values (Peter Fox, Peter Voorhoeve and Lindsay Fox).
Operating out of Volvo Group Australia’s headquarters in Brisbane, Peter Voorhoeve, President of Volvo Group Australia is responsible for the trucks business in Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, New Caledonia and French Polynesia. This includes the responsibility of managing the Group’s suite of brands in these markets: Volvo Trucks, Mack Trucks, UD Trucks and Renault Trucks. Voorhoeve joined Volvo Group Australia in late 2013, bringing with him an exceptionally strong international and multi-brand background from various senior management positions within Volvo 53
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Group, including Truck Sales & Marketing Asia Pacific, Volvo Parts and Volvo Action Service. Voorhoeve takes great pride in continuing Volvo Group’s premier customer-centric values. “When I came to Australia, I knew this was going to be a very exciting market,” says Voorhoeve. “While I have worked in Asia, I come from Europe, where we are very much accustomed to trucks that pull a single trailer and carry anywhere from 42 to 52 tonnes, depending on the country. In Australia that’s your small transport. Around here a prime mover unit can pull up to 190 tonnes. w w w. v o
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From a technical and product point of view, this is probably the most exciting market we have in the world.”
With reduced infrastructure projects in the mining sector, combined with lowering prices of iron ore and coal, Voorhoeve Market Saturation and Slowing understands the increased pressure Economy Create Fierce put on the economy and expects Competition a significantly tougher economic “From a global perspective the climate in the upcoming quarters. truck industry in Australia is a small What does this mean for market. The Heavy Duty market is Voorhoeve and Volvo Group? “The only between 10,000 to 12,000 units. economy in Australia needs to make However, the number of brands a switch to focusing on non-mining that we have here is enormous; activities as a key revenue stream. 17 different brands. It’s a highly This switch is slowed down by the competitive market and you need relative strength of the Australian to fight very hard to gain market Dollar and that equates to a slower share. In addition, the market has economy. We need to adapt to decreased about five percent from this new economic climate for the last year, creating extra pressure,” next 18 months.” says Voorhoeve. “If I translate that into the transport Over the past 15 years or so, the industry, we have two big activities. Australian economy has largely been One of these is truck sales, which driven by the mining industry which are investments and closely related has led to a strong appreciation of to business confidence. The the Australian dollar. “To use a Dutch other is service and maintenance, expression, I had the feeling that this related to the amount of work was the country where the trees grew that our customers have,” says into the heavens,” says Voorhoeve of Voorhoeve. “Both areas are under the market opportunities in Australia, pressure. Reduced confidence “but the trees are growing a bit smaller in the economy leads to a smaller now. From a personal perspective, I Heavy Duty truck market - which see that as an ongoing factor.” we are currently seeing. The lvotrucks.com/trucks/australia-market/en-au/Pages/Home.aspx
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service and maintenance side is fairly stable: there are lower activity levels in Western Australia and Queensland so trucks are driving less kilometres; on the other hand, New South Wales and New Zealand are going very well and Victoria is maintaining its momentum.” “Coming from Asia, what’s especially interesting in Australia is it’s a very mature market,” says Voorhoeve, “that means customer focus becomes more important. In Australia we’re on a level where your 55
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product quality and features are essentially hygienic; a base factor.” In a mature market, you have fantastic infrastructure, strong regulations and a good focus on safety, giving Volvo Group strong opportunities to go one step further and help customers run their businesses more efficiently. “It’s really by focusing on the customer that you drive the business,” says Voorhoeve. At his first dealer conference in February of this year, Voorhoeve w w w. v o
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said he had three words for his audience: “service, service and service.” Voorhoeve sees this as quintessential to Volvo Group’s market success. “Especially now with a market that’s cooling down, the extra attention that you can give to a customer - being there for them is key.” Voorhoeve explains that in this mature market Volvo Group Australia strives to be a business-solution provider. “We go a step further from just selling the product to actually endeavoring to be a business partner and helping customers run their business.”
of being genuinely connected with customers. This has truly nurtured his appreciation and intelligence in regards to dealing with customers. “I started out with Volvo in the Customer Contact Centre where I would help our customers work with our products and providing solutions, all day every day,” says Voorhoeve. “I try to put myself in our customer’s position, and focus on what I can do to exceed their expectation, to go the extra mile. That is personally very important — I feel good when my customers feel good. My customers can trust that I will do whatever I can to make sure they are more than happy with the Continuous Improvement: products and services they get from Obviously, Volvo Group isn’t the only me. If you focus on there always company in the world claiming to being room for improvement, you’ll focus on their customers. However, achieve a distinguishing factor. If Voorhoeve comes from customer you do something right, you build service, that’s his background, a relationship and continue doing granting a significant competitive business with that customer.” advantage in this specific area. Having run his own business prior to Long-running Environmental his position at Volvo Group as well Consciousness as coming from a family that was Voorhoeve continues to reinforce service minded, he has customer Volvo Group’s core values of Quality, service in his DNA, and is very much Care for the Environment and Safety. in tune with the critical importance You’ll find that in all of their products. lvotrucks.com/trucks/australia-market/en-au/Pages/Home.aspx
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Australian Scott Harvey, who drives for SRH Milk Haulage, won by being the most fu
Fuelwatch championships (Joachim Rosenberg, Scott Harvey, Peter Voorhoeve, Cris
As countless people have come to know, quality is built into all Volvo Group product lines. While green consciousness isn’t necessarily unique, the Company lists care for the environment as a competitive advantage because they’ve maintained this environmentally friendly approach for over four decades. In 1972, as part of the Xxxxxxxxxx United Nations Conference on 57
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the Human Environment, Volvo recognised that they are part of the environmental problem, but also that they are determined to be part of the solution. It is clear Volvo Group continues to lead the way in their approach to Environmental Care. “The models we currently have on the road are very fuel efficient; more so than many other brands. Not only is the environment very dear to us, but
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uel efficient driver at the Volvo
stophe Martin).
fuel costs equate to approximately 30 percent of our customers’ costs, so creating fuel efficient models provides significant relief for our customers.” Cost-saving Fuel Efficiency Volvo Group’s focus on fuel efficiency is best demonstrated through their Driver’s Fuel Challenge, also known as Fuelwatch. The best competitors
out of 5,800 participants from 12 countries competed in the Volvo Asia Pacific Fuelwatch Championships, held in Gothenburg, Sweden this year. Australian Scott Harvey, who drives for SRH Milk Haulage, won by being the most fuel efficient driver at the championships. “I am very excited. It’s a great thing to win,” said Harvey after his victory. “And it should be a great motivation for everyone.
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V O LV O G R O U P A U S T R A L I A Back home, I run a business with 120 drivers. If only ten of them show such improvements in terms of fuel efficiency, it means immense savings! It’s really great if you have such a focus.”
people die in road traffic accidents globally. Research shows that human error is involved in about 90 % of all traffic accidents. Driver fatigue or inattention is by far the most common cause of singlevehicle accidents. “This is not Legendary Safety Standards acceptable, which is why we work In a country where you drive with actively in the areas of safety, 150 tonnes upwards of 80 kph, aligning with key business partners safety is of the utmost importance. around our mutual core values,” While many companies do indeed says Voorhoeve. talk about safety today, the founders One way Volvo demonstrates their of Volvo, back in 1928, made it their concern for all road users is through mission, that as long as people are partnering with Toll in support of in or around their products, safety the Amy Gillet Foundation’s ‘Amy’s must be the principle design criteria. Share the Road Tour’ to highlight “We’ve been talking about safety for how to safely share the road with the past 80 plus years, backing all trucks and cyclists. of our products. The focus on safety Linfox is another well-known name in Australia is very significant, and connecting with Volvo through their we have a lot of people dedicated commitment to safety. Through to helping our customers focus on their dedicated Vision ZERO safety safety,” says Voorhoeve. program, Linfox is on a journey to Every year, about 1.2 million achieve zero fatalities, zero injuries,
“In Australia we’re on a level where your product quality and features are essentially hygienic; a base factor. And it’s really by focusing on the customer that you drive the business.” 59
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zero motor vehicle accidents, zero net environmental emissions and zero tolerance of unsafe behavior and practices. The current Qantas in-flight magazine features a safety card highlighting how Volvo Trucks and Linfox are working together to put safety first. For many of Volvo’s customers safety is not only a core value, it is smart business. Fonterra travels more than 90 million kilometres annually, collecting more than 17 billion litres of milk in New Zealand. Volvo and Fonterra’s latest advertising campaign highlights both companies’ commitment to safety for all road users. Superior Maintenance and Service Next to the products, the Company has a very strong and dense dealer network. Once the truck is on the road, Volvo Group does everything it can to ensure optimal operating conditions. When it comes to maintenance and repair Volvo Group strives to optimise its parts availability, which is in part made possible by their large warehouse in Sydney. Volvo Group is capable
of delivering 95 percent of all parts immediately from stock. The Company ranks parts availability for their customers very highly and are recognised within the industry for this. Volvo Group offers their customers the option of servicing trucks themselves or within Volvo Group’s workshops, of which they have 76 around the country on all the major highways. “There’s always somewhere local to our customers for us to service their trucks or assist them,” says Voorhoeve. “We have a very strong service and distribution network in addition to our comprehensive maintenance agreements, giving customers full control of their service costs.” Local Production Meets Demand of Local Conditions Volvo Group also has their own production facility in Australia. “It’s important that we produce our own vehicles here in Australia, because we recognise the demanding environment of this country. Every truck is different because every application is different,” says Voorhoeve. Volvo Group ensures
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Fuel efficiency is one of the most important factors for both the environment and a c
customer satisfaction through the top-performance capabilities of their vehicles and local production standards built to perform in Australia’s challenging climate conditions. “This allows us to customise our trucks for our customers.” “We have a very complete and competitive aftermarket service. We have a commercial crew set up which provides customer with a 61
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single point of contact, making it as quick and convenient as possible to get the services and solutions they need. It’s about proactive thinking with the customer. We always focus on what we can do to maximise the uptime of the truck: finance, parts availability, repair, affordable maintenance,” says Voorhoeve. From helping their customers maintain the integrity of their w w w. v o
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Company Information INDUSTRY
Supply Chain HEADQUARTERS
Wacol QLD, Australia FOUNDED
1928 EMPLOYEES
758 PRODUCTS/ SERVICES
It’s been 80 years
company’s economy.
shipments (keeping a giant tank of fish oxygenated and alive in one case), to delivering food to an entire busload of people waiting for repair assistance, the golden rule of serving the customer whenever and however it’s needed is applied at all times. “You learn to go the extra mile. Often, in customer service, exceeding expectations is in the small things,” says Voorhoeve. Voorhoeve applies an empathetic perspective at all times to assist the Company in better understanding how to serve, serve, serve.
since the first Volvo truck was built back in 1928. Today, they are second largest producer of heavy trucks in the world, creating reliable transport solutions for clients all over the globe.
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Volvo Group Australia Address 20 Westgate St Wacol, QLD, Australia, 4076 Tel. 07 3718 3500 http://www.volvo.com/group/australia/enau/pages/volvo_splash.aspx