Thursday, April 20, 2017

Trucks & Buses: The first Hino Total Support Customer Centre (HTSCC) outside of Japan opens in Sendayan



Hino Motors Sales (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd today officially opened its RM8 million upgraded Hino Total Support Customer Centre (HTSCC). This centre is set to be the catalyst for the company’s business growth in the region. The HTSCC, the first in the world outside of Japan is built with international standard specifications from Japan to assist its customers who need to comply with the Malaysian government Safety, Health and Environment Code of Practice (SHE COP).

Mr. Ken Iwamoto & Mr. Kohei Nakamura during the plaque signing ceremony

The HTSCC is located in Sendayan and it sits on 39,600 square metre plot of land. The upgraded facility is now built with more challenging obstacles for endurance and technical skill tests such as slopped road for hill driving, banked road for medium speed cornering, professional driving track, wet handing and panic brake facility as well as a 830 meter driving track.


The centre also comes with a maintenance service bay, an open space canteen and a gallery to increase customers’ and public awareness on the history of Hino as a company, its technological revolutions and product advancement. Hino has been established in Malaysia for the past 40 years.

Hino aims for HTSCC to reach an annual training capacity of around 2000 individuals.. These training programmes are open for truck or heavy duty vehicle drivers who will be trained with highly ethical driving skills to reduce the number of accidents, complaints and summonses and ultimately to save precious lives and business costs.

For a start, HTSCC will offer extensive training courses to equip truck owners with product knowledge, safety and driving techniques. Hino’s training curriculum is inclusive of theoretical and practical courses. Its current curriculum encompasses:

i) Safety & Eco-cien Driver Training

- This programme highlights Hino’s philosophy of creating a healthy environment by reducing carbon dioxide’s (CO2) emission. Skills and techniques essential for safe and economical driving that will lead to increased business profitability will be taught.

ii) Driver Familiarisation Training

- This programme stresses skills and knowledge that ensure customers are familiar with vehicle periodic maintenance schedule, warranty and daily inspection.

iii) Safety Driver Training

- This one-day programme emphasizes on safety measures to be taken whilst on the road.

Hino also intends to gradually increase the modules of its programme with additional four new courses which are:

a) Driver Trainer Training

b) Driving & Human Reaction Training

c) Night Driving Training

d) Drivers Aptitude Test / Training 

Drivers will be tested on fuel-efficient driving, safety driving, and driving training in different road conditions and situations as well as safe driving technique when driving at night.

What Hino have done here in impressive. They have basically invested their time and capital in order to make Malaysian truck drivers into better drivers. This is aside from the fact that they have decided to make Malaysia a hub to grow their regional business. 

Not only that, this also shows another company willing to invest in human capital development in Malaysia. This development isn't just degree mills churning out paper qualifications. These are technical skills that a nation must also require to progress in order to compete globally or even regionally. 

HTSCC details






During ribbon cutting ceremony, from Left to Right –
1.    Dato' Jonny Chan, Executive Director of HMSM.
2.    En. Azmi bin Dato' Abd. Rahim, Executive Director of HMSM.
3.    Mr. Kohei Nakamura, Counselor, Director of Economic Affairs.
4.    Mr. Ken Iwamoto, Managing Director of HMSM.
5.    Mr. Shigehiro Matsuoka, Managing Officer of HINO Motors Limited, Japan.
6.    Mr. Billy Ng Seng Kong, Chairman of HMSM.
7.    Mr. Takeshi Yasuda, Senior General Manager of HINO Motors Limited, Japan.
8.    Mr. Masaaki Honna, Senior Advisor of HTSCC Division, HMSM.

PRESS RELEASE
Hino aims to make Malaysia the catalyst for next level of business growth in the region

Officially opens RM8 million Hino Total Support Customer Centre (HTSCC),
the 1st operated outside of Japan

SENDAYAN, NEGERI SEMBILAN 20th April 2017 – Hino Motors Sales (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, the number one diesel truck maker and one of the world’s leading manufacturers of medium and heavy-duty vehicles in Japan, has today officially opened its RM8 million upgraded Hino Total Support Customer Centre (HTSCC) which is set to be the catalyst for the company’s next level of business growth in the region.

HTSCC, the first in the world outside of Japan is built with international standard specifications from Japan to assist its customers who need to comply with the Malaysian government Safety, Health and Environment Code of Practice (SHE COP).

HTSCC is built on a 39,600 square metre parcel of land. Hino aims for HTSCC to reach a capacity of 2000 trainings annually. These training are open for truck or heavy duty vehicle drivers who will be trained with highly ethical driving skills to reduce the number of accidents, complaints and summonses and ultimately to save precious lives and business costs.

Mr. Ken Iwamoto, Managing Director, Hino Motor Sales (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd said, “The upgraded facility reaffirms our commitment to continue our investment in Malaysia as we intend to make this facility as the catalyst for our local customers and those in the region. It will be a showcase of a tried and tested way to save lives, reduce accidents and business costs. 

“When road accidents happen, apart from the tragic loss of lives, not many people are aware of the cost to businesses. These costs can be in the form of repairing the said vehicle, the insurance paid out to the affected families, the domino effect and disruption to business flow when traffic came to a halt and most importantly the reputation cost to the said company or brand and the country in general.”

Quoting Ministry of Transport statistics, he highlighted that road accidents cost Malaysia an estimated RM9.21 billion in the year 2016 with a total of 521,466 accidents recorded, an increase from 489,606 in 2015. Out of these road accidents, a total of 80.6 per cent were caused by human error. In 2016 itself, a total of 7,152 people died in road accidents in Malaysia, an alarming jump from 6,706 deaths in the year before.

The upgraded facility is now built with more difficult obstacles for endurance and technical skill tests such as slopped road for hill driving, banked road for medium speed cornering, professional driving track, wet handing and panic brake facility as well as a 830 meter driving track.

The centre also comes with a maintenance service bay, an open space canteen and a gallery to increase customers’ and public awareness on the history of Hino as a company, its technological revolutions and product advancement. Hino has been established in Malaysia for the past 40 years.

“Apart from providing free training to drivers of HINO’s vehicle owners, we would also want to encourage the public at large who wants to be a professionally certified truck driver to participate in our training programmes.

“When there are more professional truck drivers in the marketplace, we hope that such supply will spur companies, organisations and government agencies to put in place a mechanism and a requirement to hire only professional truck drivers certified by HTSCC.  This will not only level up the skills set required but also gearing up the entire transportation ecosystem into a new level of professionalism, with better service level and customer care,” emphasized Ken.

For a start, HTSCC will offer extensive training courses to equip truck owners with product knowledge, safety and driving techniques. Hino’s training curriculum is inclusive of theoretical and practical courses. Its current curriculum encompasses:

i)              Safety & Eco-cien Driver Training
-       This programme highlights Hino’s philosophy of creating a healthy environment by reducing carbon dioxide’s (CO2) emission. Skills and techniques essential for safe and economical driving that will lead to increased business profitability will be taught.

ii)             Driver Familiarisation Training
-       This programme stresses skills and knowledge that ensure customers are familiar with vehicle periodic maintenance schedule, warranty and daily inspection.
-        
iii)            Safety Driver Training
-       This one-day programme emphasizes on safety measures to be taken whilst on the road.

Hino intends to gradually increase the modules of its programme with additional four new courses which are:

a)    Driver Trainer Training
b)    Driving & Human Reaction Training
c)    Night Driving Training
d)    Drivers Aptitude Test / Training 

Drivers will be tested on fuel-efficient driving, safety driving, and driving training in different road conditions and situations as well as safe driving technique when driving at night.

Plans have been set aside to also provide sufficient training to equip the drivers with knowledge on how and when to react in a conflict situation driving on the road and during emergencies in the near future, leading to a mindset change in prioritizing safety and ultimately helping vehicle owners save overall business costs and lives of their drivers.

Hino is currently the number one brand amongst the truck makers in Malaysia with a market share of 35.7%.  At the end of 2016, Hino Motors Sales (Malaysia) sold a total of 5,870 units of medium and heavy-duty vehicles. This year the company expects to sell more than 6,000 units of vehicles.

-       Ends -

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