Hino’s people are full of praise for the agricultural sector. “It’s astonishing how resilient this industry is,” says Leslie Long, Senior Manager, Marketing and Demand Planning of Hino South Africa.

“The farmers are always positive despite threats and challenges such as droughts, land reform and rising input costs. No matter where a farmer comes from, he is always dedicated.”

This popular truck manufacturer invited a group of car and truck journalists to Nampo this year and brought twelve of their students from their new internship programme to see how the exhibits of the farmers and the agricultural sector. “If I ever have to choose between Nampo and another show, Nampo will always win,” said Leslie. “This is the most important place for Hino to be. The level of interaction with our customers is much higher compared to other shows. Here you talk directly with your customer and find far less snootiness and fewer freebee seekers who are not really interested in buying the product. Nampo creates a real environment. ”

Hino dug deeper into the farmers’ hearts last year with their involvement in the Farmers in Need Programme, “but we do not want to use it as a marketing strategy; it simply is our commitment to agriculture to return something,” said Leslie. “Several farmers who suffered heavily last year and had good rains this season, approached us and asking for transport for feed donations to farmers who are suffering now. We aim to get more farmers involved to donate feed,” he says.

Even though Hino’s heart is soft, their trucks are extremely tough. Many of the roads over which Hino trucks carry loads are rough country and farm roads.

Hino displayed a Dyna, a 300, two 500’s and two 700 trucks series for the farmers to inspect.

A clever move from Hino was to adapt their Dyna range, which was tailor made to transport those “awkward little loads”, so that it could now be classified as a light commercial vehicle instead of a medium commercial vehicle. Now anyone with a driver’s license may drive a Dyna. The interest shown by farmers prove that this step has far-reaching consequences for them. It was also decided to make four standard variants of the Dyna available: a drop side, a drop side tipper, canvas and fully enclosed.

In the 300 series the 614, 714 and 815 are equipped with automatic gearboxes. “Independent tests indicate that our automatic gearbox’s fuel consumption is 16,5% lower than competitive alternative gearboxes,” said Leslie.

Hino will also offer more automatic gearboxes in future. “We think that an automatic gearbox is more popular because it makes the driver’s job easier and less demanding.”

This is also the first time that Hino exhibited a 4×4 500 Series, the Hino 1322, with a single-wheel application. With dual-wheel application, all wheels must break the sand, which is heavy on fuel consumption. With single wheeled application in front, only the front wheels break the sand and the rear wheels just follow.” We signed a partnership with Palfinger and placed a crane on the 4X4 500 series to show how a farmer can easily pick up and transport heavy items.

The 1626 remains the bread-and-butter vehicle for the farmer. Hino has equipped it with the characteristic cattle bars, but many other configurations are possible.

The 700 series will remain the old faithful that farmers still use to transport their products to the silo or market. The 2845 with the feed bales and an impressive Hino 3541, 16 m³, 8X4 side tipper – used more in the construction industry, also made a big impression.

It is very important for Hino to get new blood in the company. They recently launched an in-service training programme and the first twelve appointments in their new in-house training programme will learn from sales and administration to body construction. They must even obtain heavy vehicle driver’s licences to pass the programme. It will be equivalent to an NQF4 qualification.

Hino has a very wide footprint all over South Africa. They have 65 agencies across the country, of which 43 combine Toyota and Hino. This is one of their competitive advantages and 25% of Hino’s market is in the agricultural and food sector.

Contact your nearest Hino dealer or visit www.hino.co.za to find out more about the reliable truck.