In an industry overwhelmed with new technological advancements and improvements, global leader in New Energy vehicles BYD continues to prove it is ahead of the curve.
Dominating a large share of the global electric bus market with over 105,000 buses in service outside of China, BYD’s innovation was cemented at the end of 2023 when it was crowned the global leader in new energy vehicle sales after amassing a record-breaking three million annual sales.
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Now, BYD Australia in its drive to provide market leading Commercial Vehicles Aftersales support within the Australian bus sector has recently appointed Grant Mascord as BYD Australia’s National Aftersales Manager as the first step, with his technical and industry experience proving invaluable.
“From the time the bus is delivered till its end of service life, it’s our responsibility to ensure it’s running the right way,” Mascord told ABC.
“With optimised aftersales care, breakdowns are minimised, and when they do happen, they’re fixed quickly.”
Working for 25 years as an engineer for Qantas, Mascord says he understands how important it is to keep the vehicles on the road and getting vehicles up and running as soon as possible for operators.
“I worked for years fulfilling maintenance for the aircraft and scheduling it all to the time requirements of an airline,” Mascord says.
“As you could understand, you run to some pretty tight deadlines, and it can be detrimental if work isn’t done to time or to standard.
“It works exactly the same for bus operators,” he says. “We want to ensure they can get their buses back on the road as soon as possible.”
While aircraft occupied a quarter century of his life, Mascord has spent the better part of a decade since honing his knowledge of buses.
Joining the bus industry back in 2013, looking after contract management and aftersales for Volvo Bus, Mascord quickly learnt the ins and outs of priorities for operators. He then went over to Scania in 2016, and Custom Denning in 2019 before officially joining BYD Australia in February this year.
“My knowledge grew from every job, learning valuable insight into what works the best, and how to better processes and systems to make everything seamless,” Mascord says.
In ensuring this seamless approach, BYD Australia has taken steps to further localise its support, providing extensive training and local service delivery to its employees and customers.
“We can ensure quicker turnarounds when customers can rely on the knowledge and skillsets of our local team on the ground in Australia,” Mascord says.
“By equipping them with everything needed, customers can rest assured their worries and queries can be dealt by a local aftersales support team without having to refer to HQ overseas.”
Another key factor to success Mascord says, is equipping the customers and operators with training prior to taking the buses home. This would include identifying the differences between different buses, new models and technology, general maintenance and familiarisation with the electrical systems.
“By loading them up with this knowledge, it helps operators maintain their vehicles to the best standards within their own manpower.”
The next step in BYD’s aftersales drive is the appointment of Truck Tech as an approved BYD Australia commercial vehicle repairer providing operators with additional mechanical support.
Starting back in 2007, Truck Tech has steadily grown to become one of the leading Fleet maintenance and repair experts in the electric and hydrogen vehicle industry for operators.
Currently, Truck Tech’s Fleet maintenance services cover NSW, including Sydney and greater Metro, as well as the Central Coast region, and Victoria through its Dandenong site. In February, Truck Tech also opened up a workshop in Yatala, Queensland, with the brand now having more than 140 staff and over 70 service vehicles across Australia’s east coast.
The new partnership not only supports BYD Australia in providing excellent care and service delivery to customers but aligns with Truck Tech’s vision of supporting the electric vehicle industry and being a front runner, leading the way in aftersales support of electric buses in the local market.
“Our goals and visions aligned,” Truck Tech CEO Barry Saad told ABC. “We always wanted to partner with companies who had the same goals and aspirations as us.
“Initial conversations between BYD Australia and Truck Tech happened in January with introductions made. We then did some work with them and formalised everything six months later.
“This partnership is a key piece to Truck Tech’s goal of becoming the leader in aftersales repairs and Fleet maintenance for zero emission vehicles. It’s a huge step forward for us. We’re very excited as a business to support the clients and the brand.”
While Truck Tech didn’t intend to enter the bus industry, starting its journey fixing trucks out of the back of Saad’s ute, the team are now finding opportunities to evolve and complete a wider range of tasks for the sector.
Saad says the most popular service the business has is completing on-site services and repairs. This often allows Truck Tech technicians to venture to operator depots or provide crucial workshop support for larger jobs.
If needed, Truck Tech also offers a pick-up and delivery service to operators where Truck Tech drivers pick up a bus in need of repair from the depot, take it back to a Truck Tech workshop for repairs, then drop the bus back to the operator when it’s fixed.
“We’re someone that cares about the asset and the vehicle’s uptime,” Saad says.
The long-standing relationship Truck Tech has had with its customers underpins another reason why BYD Australia was keen to have them on board.
“Truck Tech are trusted within the industry,” Mascord says.
“They have great relationships established already and have proven they care about the vehicles and customers.”
Moving forward, BYD Australia aims to continue improving their aftersales service, with Mascord saying, “it’s only up from here.”
“We are going to continue improving and changing to better suit our customers and their needs.”
“We’re not going to do things half done and then do it again later. We want to ensure everything we do is to a high standard.”
For now, BYD still maintains its reputation as a global leader of New Energy vehicles, with two new electric bus models to be exhibited at the upcoming National Bus and Coach Show in September in Brisbane.
To preview the latest BYD electric buses, visit the BYD Australia team at stand L01.
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