Wheels of Fortune

Money is always too tight to mention, but Scania Finance Australia has devised a successful series of products to ease the path to acquiring new trucks and trailers.

Wrapping 2024 as another record year for sales performance, and continuing year-on-year growth of 20 per cent, Scania Finance Australia is gearing up to reveal even more customer-friendly, efficiency and productivity-focused services as it enters its 10th year operating in Australia.

“As a captive finance provider to Scania Australia customers, we have built a solid reputation as a lender who gets customers rolling,” says Scania Finance Country Manager, Wayne Thomason.

“We believe our performance rate with new Scania truck deliveries would be the highest among captive finance businesses in the Australian truck market.”

Trust, capability, consistency and competitive rates are keystones behind Scania Finance’s reputation according to Wayne including time in business and overall financial competence, all while being backed by a major international funding powerhouse.

“When we talk to Scania customers who want to investigate alternatives to their traditional funding model, we are not only willing and able to help them, but we can draw on plenty of in-market success stories with which to give them confidence — we know what we’re talking about,” he says.

“Our products have been proven to be fit for Australia’s operating environment.”

Through 2024 Scania Finance have broadened its strategy to extend offers to more national fleets and mining, having secured a meaningful share of the retail and SME fleet business generated by the truck sales team at Scania Australia.

“Within the mining industry we are working with Scania customers who are venturing into autonomous trucks, and we are funding our first battery electric truck [the first one for Scania in Asia Pacific], so we’re at the cutting edge of the transformation of the industry, but within the parameters of our tailored solution concept that delivers individual results for each customer,” adds Wayne.

Recently, Scania Finance Australia attracted highly experienced heavy and light vehicle finance expert Tori Caton to the team in the role of National Sales Manager.

“I’m leveraging my senior sales, operations, and relationship experience gathered over more than 20 years in automotive financial services in both corporate and retail environments, and I can see many opportunities for fleet operators at all levels throughout the industry to benefit from Scania Finance’s products and services,” Tori says.

“Scania Finance Australia has achieved good penetration across general freight operators of all sizes, vocational businesses as well as highly specialised segments such as jetvacs, but there is still further scope for us to advance our tailored solutions into this market.

“Lately we have been offering financial assistance to customers buying new trailers to coincide with their new trucks, and our insurance product is also successful.”

Because its nationwide team of finance sales experts works hand-in-hand with truck account managers, Tori says the business can offer a complete and synchronised product.

A key advantage and differentiator for the customer, according to Wayne, is Scania Finance providing customers with the confidence that the approved funding will still be in place when the new vehicle is ready for delivery; a major consideration where there may be long-lead times, or macro-economic volatility factors at play.

“We won’t let our customers down and that’s the bottom line,” Wayne says.