Daniel Petrovski

HINO has taken an innovative step by sharing its vehicle data technology with Australian motor body builders to ensure superstructures built on its chassis meet relevant safety and engineering standards.

Hino Australia manager of product strategy Daniel Petrovski told GoAutoNews Premium that the launch of its seminars for body builders and the Hino Bodyworx portal are designed to inform service providers of the technical changes with the brand’s products as the vehicles become increasingly complex.

“Our trucks are sent to more than 600 body builders in Australia and 100 per cent of those heavy commercial trucks – that’s more than 30,000 a year – have some form of superstructure added,” Mr Petrovski said.

“The trucks are more sophisticated and we need to ensure that the people who work on them have as much information as possible.

“The Hino 500 Series, for example, has autonomous emergency braking and electronic stability control as standard. Anyone working on these trucks has to be aware of the electrical system, right down to the process for disconnecting the ECU or battery.

“People think it’s a pretty easy thing to attach new brake lights, for example, but you’d be surprised how many body builders have plugged them into the back of the tail-lights rather than a dedicated plug that is already on our chassis.

“These are important things. We are using the seminars and the portal as an opportunity to connect with body builders and let them know we have people here, in Hino Australia, to help them so they can ring in and get assistance and guidance of where to get those plug-in components.”

Mr Petrovski said the issue of protecting OEM data from independent repairers and body builders “didn’t really work in the trucking industry”.

“The body builders have access to Hino CAD data, technical bulletins and manuals,” he said.

“With data transfer, we do look at it a bit different. Our dealers are the primary contractor and they then talk to the customer. The body builder is our partner in building the truck for that customer.

“If it’s a repair job, it’s a bit different. But building the body to last the 25 years or so of the truck is important and we have to do everything we can to ensure the quality and durability are there.”

The Hino Bodyworx portal provides access to information such as body building mounting manuals, CAD drawings, technology and more.

The Bodyworx program has now been extended to a series of information seminars for truck body builders, component suppliers and engineering certifiers, in what is believed to be a first for the Australian truck industry.

“I believe we are the first in the Hino world to run this, though it’s possible there’s something similar with another truck company in Europe,” Mr Petrovski said.

“The reaction from the body building and supplier community has been great. We aim to hold another round later this year or early in 2020. In 2019 we had more than 100 body builders attend Hino dealerships in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide.

“The next round may include other staff from the same businesses, so the skills go around the company. It’s a practice that I see expanding to other manufacturers.”

Mr Petrovski said the seminars are a natural extension of the information already available on the Hino Bodyworx portal.

By Neil Dowling