It's Here! - CablePrice

TRACK & WHEELFROM THE PREVIOUS PAGEWhen the dairy company put some oftheir Scania’s up for sale, Fallgate Farmsused the opportunity to get their handson a quality second hand truck and takecontrol of their potato transportationrequirements.Although Fallgate Farms started outwith second-hand Scanias, they havesince upgraded to the new R-series andhave a fleet of four trucks - all Scanias.Murray purchased his first Scania, aP113, from CablePrice’s Brian Leary in1994 and having recently added a newScania P340 6x4, now has five trucksin his fleet. Both Murray and Jamescommented that the reliability of Scaniahasn’t changed over the years; it’s just thetechnology and the features in the cab,including the creature comforts that havecontinued to get better. This leads intothe strong driver acceptance both say theyalso have as a result of running with thepremium Swedish truck. “They have agood serviceable cab and the drivers findthem really comfortable,” says Murray,but Margaret goes a little further saying,“they have all the comfort you need inthem. They’re probably better than mostcars.” James suggests his driver wouldalmost spend more time in the truck thanhe does at home, so says this had animpact on why Fallgate Farms purchasedtheir first new truck, an 8x4 Scania R470from CablePrice. “The drivers lovethem.”The Turley’s and the Bowan’s bothsay that strong relationships are thefoundation of how they do business andwho they do business with.Margaret sums it up simplistically stating“we’re relationship people,” whileMurray elaborates”, saying he feels it’seasier to build relationship with onebuyer for each of his products, and saysthat he applies the same approach tohis purchasing decisions too, includingtrucks. “Our marketing philosophy is totry to pick the right company and stickwith them, working through the ups anddowns, says Murray.“First you have to work out if it’s theproduct you like, then once you like theproduct it’s whether the people can dothe job right” says Murray, “It’s a balancebetween the product and the relationship,”and its for this reason he says he has stuckwith the Swedish manufactured truckand CablePrice. “It was the good runwe had out of the first ones that the nextones just kept coming, I suppose” saysMurray, before singling out CablePrice’sChristchurch based Workshop Foreman,Peter Docherty (commonly known as‘Doc’) for complements, “We’ve alwayshad a good relationship with Doc and heunderstands we can’t have them off theroad for long. He’s always willing towork in when making an appointment toservice the trucks.”James agrees that the team at CablePrice inChristchurch run a tight ship, but choosesto points out the branches Truck ServiceManager, Stu Thornley, saying he makeslife easy for Fallgate Farms and is clearin his communications, "They keep youinformed about what is going on and theywon’t just go and do it, leaving you with abill that makes you say holey s _ _ _!”Between Turley and Fallgate Farms,the similarities of the two stories arestriking. Each also appreciates the power,performance, comfort and reliability theirScania fleet provides them, but seeminglymore importantly, they value the qualityof the relationship they have developedwith both manufacturer and dealer – andthe autonomy that having in their ownfleet provides them in running theirbusiness.44