Triton brings the challenge to competitors
The bakkie war has intensified with the local launch of Mitsubishi’s next-generation Triton, an evolution in the iconic bakkie’s 46-year legacy.
- Product News
- 21 November 2024
The Suzuki Grand Vitara is gearing up for a brand-new challenge: conquering road safety awareness.
To do this, Suzuki Auto South Africa has partnered with FleetMax Africa to develop a special road-safety curriculum called DriveSMART with a Suzuki campaign that it will broadcast across its social media channels.
“Every year, more than 14 000 people die on South Africa’s roads and many thousands more are badly hurt or maimed in vehicle accidents. If you look closely at these statistics, young people are disproportionately affected by vehicle accidents. We want to change that,” says Ashref Ismail, CEO of FleetMax Africa (photo).
Added to the tragic loss of life and its effect on the South African youth, these accidents come at a cost to the economy of more than R150 billion per annum.
FleetMax Africa is a proudly South African transport consultancy whose emphasis lies on driving and road safety training. The company employs a large group of highly qualified individuals from the transport, traffic, road safety and enforcement backgrounds who are led by Ismail who has more than 20 years’ experience in road safety education, traffic management and traffic law enforcement.
Suzuki is also actively partnering with Wheel Well, an organisation that specifically campaigns for children in road safety. It will support Wheel Well’s Halo Beanie project that aims to reduce child pedestrian fatalities and injuries caused by road traffic accidents by providing reflective gear for children in the form of beanies, especially in rural areas.
Returning to the partnership between Suzuki and FleetMax: Suzuki will provide two Grand Vitara GLX models for use in a series of training programmes across South Africa and the filming of road safety videos, which will be between two and three minutes long and will cover more than 120 road safety topics, including defensive driving, vehicle maintenance and many other road safety topics.
“These videos will have a long shelf life and can be shared freely across our social channels and those of our partners, as well as other companies that share our concern with vehicle safety.
“Together we can help turn the tide and make owning and driving a car the exciting key to freedom that it should be for young people,” says Brendon Carpenter, Brand Marketing Manager of Suzuki Auto South Africa.”
The bakkie war has intensified with the local launch of Mitsubishi’s next-generation Triton, an evolution in the iconic bakkie’s 46-year legacy.
Unlike in the past, when dealerships primarily waited for customers to come to them, we now take a more proactive approach, bringing our vehicles directly to places where people gather, allowing them to experience the product first-hand, including offering test drives,” says Gerrie van der Kaay, Dealer Principal at Supergroup Dealerships Jetour Midrand.
JAC Motors added ABS (Anti-lock Braking System) to its X200 2.8L TDI 1.5-tonne single-cab, enhancing safety for both the crew and cargo. This latest upgrade complements the ABS-equipped X200 1.3-tonne double-cab targeted at organisations with labour-intensive crews.
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If you are not taking care of your customer, your competitor will.
Bob Hooey
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