The 2012 Volvo Trucks Fuelwatch Competition China Final Concludes

       

The Volvo Trucks Fuelwatch Competition, which forms a part of Volvo Trucks comprehensive value-added service platform – Volvo Trucks Driver Fuel-Saving Pioneer Union, aims to improve drivers’ fuel-saving soft skills, to improve company’s operational efficiency and profitability, and thus, to create a cleaner environment on the road. It ultimately provides a win-win situation among individuals, companies, and the society. 

 

The Volvo Trucks Driver Fuel-saving Pioneer Union also includes Volvo Trucks open driver training, as well as a five-month long 2012 Volvo Trucks Fuelwatch Ambassador Online Vote jointly hosted by Volvo Trucks and 360che.com. Finally,  netizen Cui Neng, whose online name is ”Chuanhang VOLVO”, won the online vote through his professional fuel-saving experiences and warmly-welcomed posts, as well as touching driver stories. He will be entitled to participate in the Volvo Trucks Fuelwatch Competition Asia-Pacific Final together with the winner of the China final, communicating with skilled drivers in the region and immersing himself in truck culture.  

 

 

Eric Labat said: “Good vehicles need good drivers. It is our drivers who evoke the best performance and superiority of Volvo Trucks. Our fuel-saving value-added services have been warmly recognized by customers and drivers. Their improvements on efficiency and profitability form the basis of our original intentions to launch the Volvo Trucks Driver Fuel-Saving Pioneer Union, and are our objectives which are being improved continuously. Thus, Volvo Trucks is committed to offering our highly-efficient fuel-saving value-added services with our partners in China. In the meanwhile, we encourage drivers to share their pragmative fuel-saving experiences and driving lives. Volvo Trucks helps develop and care for drivers through multiple channels, the Volvo Trucks driver club website, activities by our partners and us, and more. From those channels, they are able to develop their professionalism, obtain higher incomes, and present truck drivers’ style in the Fuel-saving Pioneer Union platform.  Volvo Trucks commits to socially responsible initiatives that emphasize safety, quality, care for the environment, and personalization from the manufacturing to the end point. ”

Liu Jinqiang, the winner of the 2012 Fuelwatch Competition and who has a 29-year driving experiences, said: “The Volvo Trucks Fuelwatch Competition makes drivers recognize the importance of safety, fuel-saving, as well as driving details and good driving behaviors. Thanks Volvo Trucks for providing us this platform to learn from and communicate with each other, through which I have known many mentors and friends. I hope Volvo Trucks continuously manufacture safe, fuel-saving and environmentally conservative trucks.”

Since the Asia-Pacific region has become the second largest market of Volvo Group, the company will increase its investments in this region, and has decided to host its Fuelwatch Competition AP Final in Melbourne this year.

All driver contestants, Fuelwatch Ambassador, guests and media also visited Volvo Trucks parts warehouse in Shanghai after the awarding ceremony.  The sufficient storage of 150,000 parts ensures good operation conditions of Volvo Trucks.  Safety, time-efficiency, equipment perfection, economy, environmental conservation -- all of these are at the core of the competiveness of modern logistics, which require high quality vehicles and timely, considerate customer services. Volvo Trucks has the widest customer service network among all imported heavy-duty truck manufacturers with 44 national service stations and two 24 hours service centers, the Action Service Center offers road assistance and rescuing, and a seven-year Customer Care Center, which reduce waiting time as much as possible and guarantee good performance of its trucks to meet requirement of its users’ commitments made to their end customers. 

Volvo Trucks’ “Customer-Oriented” philosophy of after-sales services and the objective of helping customers’ highly-efficient and economic operations echo the requirements of the 12th Five-Year Plan: accelerate the socialization, professionalism, and informationization of modern logistics service system and greatly develop the third -party logistics; prioritize the integration and utilization of available logistics resources, strengthen the construction and connection of the infrastructure of the logistics industry, enhance logistics efficiency, and reduce logistics costs. 

 

2012 Fuelwatch Competition Review

The review of China final

 

The Volvo Trucks Fuelwatch Competition requires drivers to drive the same truck under the same payload and road condition. Results showed that the fuel consumption figures’ differences between the first and the last in the previous four semi-finals was about 10% to 20%, the figure of China Final reaches about 20%. Therefore, good driving skills play a critical role in reducing fuel consumption. For example: a Sichuan driver successfully reduced his fuel consumption from 46 liters per hundred kilometers to 32 through training and instruction from Volvo Trucks. 

The 14 contestants came from various transportation fields including express,  dangerous goods transportation, and bulky goods transportation. Besides sharing their fuel-saving skills, most of them mentioned the importance of safty driving. Once the safty sense raised, all different parts of driving and vehicles can gain more attention. At the meanwhile, drivers believe the excellent safty performance and convenient control system of Volvo Trucks help them concentrate to face different challenges in transportantion.  

Continuous breakthrough on value-added services

Since the launch of the event in 2009, The 2012 Volvo Trucks Fuelwatch Competition attracted 73 contestants in China. The Volvo Ocean Race limited edition, Volvo FH16 660, served as the competition vehicle, and ran through 20 cities and held 45 open driver trainings in China. Over 2,000 people participated in the open driving courses, and a total of 20,000 hours’ fuel-saving driving training were provided by Volvo Trucks. 

Customers’ satisfactory with Volvo Trucks value-added services has given the company more confidence and motivation to invest additional time and effort to the Chinese logistics companies and drivers. This year, the Volvo Trucks Driver Fuel-Saving Pioneer Union’s driving training will be open to individual driver and companies, and the consultation services and onsite support will be provided to customers’ internal Fuelwatch Competition. Baohua logistics from Zhenjiang became the first company to host a Baohua Logistics Fuelwatch Competition, and Volvo Trucks provided driving training and technical supports onsite. 

The activities of Volvo Trucks Fuelwatch Competition open driver training, and Fuelwatch Ambassador Online Vote also feature a sense of personal care. Volvo Trucks executives, professionals, and marketing personnel communicate with drivers by asking their opinions on Volvo Trucks during such event and most of the company’s products adopt drivers’ suggestions.  In 2011, Volvo Trucks launched its online driver club, wwww.volvotrucksdriverclub.com, which is the first website for truck drivers among imported brands. It serves as the center for communication, entertainment, and interaction among all Volvo Trucks drivers and also a channel to deliver the information of the competition. Through words, pictures, videos and other multimedia means, it becomes a truly happy and warm “drivers’ family” for Volvo Trucks drivers.

Volvo Trucks will present the status of the Asia-Pacific Final to Chinese customers and drivers in November. We hope that Liu Jinqiang will perform excellent in AP final and look forward to hearing more about fuel-saving experiences and truck culture from Cui Neng, our Chinese Fuelwatch Ambassador. 

Effectiveness of corporate social responsibility

   

Volvo Trucks has been persisting the core values of Safety, Quality and Care for the Environment for 80 years since its establishment, and the brand has been widely recognized and accepted by global consumers, which proves a mutual beneficially sustainable development between the business and the environment care of Volvo Trucks.

For several decades, Volvo Trucks has constantly improved its truck technology in the manufacturing process: reduced fuel consumption at the rate of 1% each year and lowered over 40% as of today; 85% to 90% of its truck’s parts are recyclable; launched engine for Euro 6, which will reduce nitrogen oxides emissions and particulate emissions by 77% and 50% respectively; and provided multiple fuel-saving value-added services. Those are all Volvo Trucks’ initiatives committed to enhancing drivers’ fuel-saving skills, improving company’s operational efficiency and profitability, and creating a cleaner environment on the road, in order to provide a win-win situation among individuals, corporations, and the society. 

The goal of energy conservation and carbon emissions reduction within the 12th   Five-Year Plan has already been set: decrease energy consumption by 10% per unit turnover of transportation; reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 11%; and apply Euro IV emissions standard in 2013. The fuel-saving services of Volvo Trucks will help facilitate the development of energy conservation and the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions within the logistics industry.