At Hino Australia’s 2024 business briefing, Richard Emery, President and CEO, shared strategic insights into the company’s approach to addressing critical challenges in the trucking industry, particularly related to truck body building and the Built to Go (BTG) range. Emery’s comments underscored Hino’s vision for enhancing operational efficiency by tightening control over body building processes to better meet customer needs and drive sustainable growth over the next decade.
A structural issue
One of the key issues Emery highlighted is the lack of scalability in Australia’s body building industry, which is primarily comprised of small, independent businesses. They often lack the resources or incentives to scale up to meet fluctuating demand. This limitation in body building capacity has caused considerable delays in truck delivery timelines. Trucks awaiting body completion can now sit for over 120 days—up from a pre-pandemic target of 90 days—leading to prolonged waiting periods for customers and missed opportunities for Hino and its dealers.
Moving towards a controlled production model
In response, Emery announced Hino’s ambitions to redefine the body building process through the expansion of its BTG range. This initiative aims to streamline truck production by integrating a selection of pre-built body options directly at the manufacturing level, rather than leaving body customisation to smaller local body shops. Emery’s vision is to create a production model that resembles traditional automotive or truck assembly lines. For instance, in Hino’s Kyoto facilities, tippers are manufactured on a production line equipped with advanced robotics—an approach Emery believes could be adapted, albeit in a simplified manner, to fit the Australian market.
Through the BTG initiative, Hino plans to offer more standardised, “cookie-cutter” options that can satisfy a broad range of customer needs while maintaining some level of flexibility. This shift could significantly reduce the lag between production and delivery, allowing customers to access trucks faster, thereby lowering costs associated with vehicle floor planning and improving cash flow for both Hino and its dealership partners.
Enhancing quality and consistency
Emery also pointed to the need for improved quality control and consistency in body building as critical to Hino’s long-term strategy. The fragmented nature of Australia’s body building sector has led to significant disparities in product quality, often leaving national fleet customers dissatisfied with certain builds. For Hino, quality control is not only a matter of delivering a reliable product but also a brand imperative; under the BTG model, Hino’s objective is to create uniform quality across all body types to uphold its brand’s reputation for reliability and performance.
Hino’s commitment to quality extends to warranty support. Currently, Hino is one of the few companies that includes the body under its truck warranty, which Emery cited as a point of differentiation. Competitors often exclude body coverage, a practice that Hino’s leadership feels is out of step with customer expectations in light-duty and medium-duty truck segments. By offering a fully integrated, warrantied truck-and-body solution, Hino aims to position itself as a more reliable partner in the fleet and commercial vehicle market.
Market impact and future sales growth
Hino’s approach to body building is not only designed to solve current capacity issues but also to capitalise on emerging opportunities in the Australian market. Emery anticipates that a more robust BTG lineup will support sales growth by streamlining the purchasing process for customers. By reducing delivery timelines and offering pre-configured body options, Hino is making its trucks more accessible to a broader audience, particularly in sectors like construction and logistics, where standardised truck bodies are often sufficient.
Emery’s vision for growth is grounded in the belief that the market for rigid trucks will continue to expand over the next 5-10 years. He noted that as the industry stabilises post-COVID, Hino’s ability to control the production process end-to-end will be a key factor in differentiating its brand and sustaining growth. The BTG range allows Hino to address customer needs more proactively while reducing dependency on the fragmented local body building industry.
The road ahead: Beyond Body Building
Looking ahead, Hino’s focus on improving body building capacity and consistency is part of a broader strategy to create a resilient and customer-centric business model in Australia. Emery’s comments underscored that Hino’s investment in BTG is more than just a response to industry bottlenecks; it’s a forward-thinking strategy that aims to enhance the brand’s competitiveness by offering customers faster, more reliable solutions.
Emery’s remarks make it clear that Hino Australia is committed to adapting its business model to better serve the evolving needs of the market. By taking greater control over body building and enhancing its BTG range, Hino is laying the groundwork for a more streamlined, reliable customer experience. Through these innovations, the company aims to foster growth, improve customer satisfaction, and build a more sustainable future in Australia’s trucking industry.