“The future lives here” was the common theme resounding from the UD Trucks National Sales Conference in April after a challenging yet record year for the UD Trucks brand.
The conference, held at the W Hotel in Brisbane, was an opportunity for sales staff from around Australia to gather to share brand goals, acknowledge some incredible achievements and gain insight on future products. Amongst key product initiatives was UD’s innovation roadmap towards smart logistics.
“The objective of UD Trucks is to become the Japanese sustainability leader,” said special international guest, Senior Vice President of UD Technology, Douglas Nakano.
“We cannot aim to be semi-environmentally friendly. It has to be bold, otherwise, you are not pushing the boundaries. We took this bold approach because we want to have the lowest environmental impact from production, from suppliers, from dealers,” he said.
He said UD’s strategy to unlocking logistics opportunities was centered around improving efficiencies using emerging technologies such as automation, connectivity and electromobility.
Very much aligned with Volvo Group Australia’s own objectives, electromobility is an area in which VGA is already an industry trailblazer.
“The strategy for Volvo Group Australia is to maintain their position in the market as being the electromobility image leader,” said Vice President of Technology Business Development, Paul Illmer.
“It’s an exciting journey. We’re developing an electric platform which will then be adapted over time,” he said.
Illmer outlined that a critical pillar to achieving this would involve drawing on the strengths of VGA’s extensive dealer network, a sentiment which was strongly reflected by Vice President of UD Trucks Australia, Lauren Downs.
“We’ve reached a once in a lifetime opportunity for the UD brand and for our dealer network,” she said.
“We are entering a record-total market at a time that we have our biggest and best range yet. It really would appear that the best is yet to come.”
