Building Big, Swede Dreams with Scania

The 5,000-square-meter facility on 1132 EDSA, Balintawak features an assortment of Scania tractor heads, mixers, trucks, plus a couple of mammoth power generators. Business appears to be on the up and up, and not a few of the units sport “sold” signs. It’s much a dream come true for the people behind BJ Mercantile, Inc. the appointed exclusive distributor and service provider of the Sweden-based manufacturer of trucks, buses, and tractor heads, as well as industrial, marine, and power engines. Named after the country’s province it was founded in the late 19^th century, Scania first made “engine-propelled carriages” before the First World War. The firm was inspired and spurred on by the success story of Ford in the US, and envisioned supplanting horse-powered haulers. Since its humble beginnings, Scania has built and sold more than 1,400,000 trucks and buses all over the world. In a previous interview with me, BJ Mercantile, Inc. vice president Leilani Lim-Tan said that the Euro truck maker had actually been on lookout for a Philippine partner since 2010 – particularly since the fuel and oil giant Shell had designated Scania as its official hauler. The 2014 appointment of Lim-Tan and company was certainly helped along by the extensive experience of BJ Mercantile in the importation and distribution of second-hand trucks, buses, and construction equipment from Japan, the US, and Europe. The company also ponied up some P150 million to start up Scania here. It’s a sticky humid day about to climax in a lot of condensation, but Carmudi Magazine Philippines is blessed with an hour or so of bright sunshine to photograph two of Scania’s mighty machines. One is a 12-wheel, 50,000-kilogram tipper predicated on a G 460-model truck; the other 12-wheel cement mixer based on a P 410 – and weighing a similar 50,000 kilos. Though more known for its haulers (which account for about 80 percent of its business, according to Lim-Tan), Scania is also training its crosshairs on the construction industry to realize further growth. [gallery ids="26112,26113,26114,26115"> “We all know that the thrust of the current administration is ‘build, build, build,’” avers the executive. “We see that in the news all the time. So, we are just preparing ourselves and basically moving along that line as well. Obviously, construction is going to be a hit. The trucks that they will be then needing are concrete mixers and tipper trucks – concrete mixers even more because building entails cement and being able to transport it. They would need to get concrete from batching plants and all of these things. So, mixers would be something we can get into this year and moving forward.” The tipper boasts a 12.7-liter DC13 106 Euro 3, four-stroke, six-cylinder direction-injection diesel engine that is liquid-cooled and has an exhaust-driven turbocharger and intercooler. Its 460hp maximum output can be accessed from 1,900rpm, while its maximum torque of a mind-numbing 2,100Nm occurs from 1,050 to 1,300rpm. On the other hand, the humongous mixer built on the bones of the Scania P 410 features a 13-liter, Euro 3, six-cylinder engine – turbocharged and intercooled, with Scania PDE injection. It blurts out a healthy 410hp (at 1,900rpm), and a stout 2,000Nm (from 1,000 to 1,350rpm). But Scania’s robust engines are only the beginning of the tale that ends in a love affair with its drivers – nay, anyone who even deigns to climb aboard the cabin. I remember getting behind the wheel of a G 410 during a “test and drive day.” Scania basically obliterated my preconceived notions (mostly bad) about trucks. First, there’s now a lot of technology in these big, bad boys. Instead of being daunted by the prospect of piloting a that multi-ton behemoth, I was pleasantly surprised by how easy, and even enjoyable, it was. For starters, Scania’s proprietary Opticruise function has supplanted the traditional clutch pedal and old-school clunky gear shift. Located as a control knob at the end of a stalk to the right of the steering wheel, the Opticruise system is a fully automated one that “(relieves) the driver of all work related to gear changing. Electro-hydraulic clutch control is used for maximum smoothness and precision… aside from improving comfort and eliminating the need to watch revs and change gears, it enables the driver to devote more attention to handling the vehicle and to other traffic. Familiarization is quick and safe and economical driving is easy and consistent. Wear-and-tear is reduced on the clutch and other powertrain components, increasing service life.” As you may have already guessed, Scania invests heavily in research and development work to optimize uptime for truck and bus drivers and operators. That means obsessing over details such as wind resistance, driver visibility through mirror placement and quality, and a sundry of concerns. If you’re into big data analytics and putting it to work for your advantage, Scania’s connected services allows impeccable fleet management that allow operators and drivers to maximize uptime and reduce cost in, say, fuel by monitoring driver habits. Customers subscribed to the service can track through even a smartphone the occurrence of negative habits such as harsh braking, idling, speeding, and even positive behavior such as coasting. A myriad of other information (including location, of course) can be monitored in real time.

All told, a slew of benefits more than offsets the premium pricing, and bottom-line-oriented people are starting to see the light. It’s true that you get what you pay for – and don’t get what you don’t. In Scania’s case, it’s a big gift that keeps on giving.

BJ Mercantile VP Leilani Lim-Tan insisted: “You might be buying a cheap brand right now, you might be shelling out a little less than half of what you're going to be shelling out of Scania… But at the end of the day, you spend more fuel, you spend more on tires, you spend more on repair and maintenance, you spend more on parts. All of those add up, and those are the ones that actually make the truck expensive. For Scania, you're paying for them up front, and you know that you're getting a good brand up front. At the end of the day, in terms of life-cycle cost, you actually end up saving more.”