Scania Financial Services reports record results as finance portfolio grows

Deliveries of trucks, buses and coaches, as well as engines reached an all-time high, and service volume also broke records, he said. Net sales rose 11% to SEK 137.1 billion (€13.4 billion).

Henriksson added: “With continued high capacity utilisation of our customers’ installed truck fleets and Scania’s continually improving service offering, which is built on data from more than 360,000 connected vehicles, our service business is continuing to grow.”

About 90% of the rolling fleet in Europe is connected and other parts of the world are following. Connected vehicle technology is having a significant impact on vehicle uptime and more customers are opting for the technology to support service and maintenance contracts.

By the end of 2018, Scania had signed more than 70,000 Flexible Maintenance contracts, a 68% increase compared to 2017. Scania says the service is giving customers up to a whole day extra operation each year, boosting their profitability and the service they provide to their customers.

The total rolling fleet of Scania vehicles drives 2.9 billion kilometres every month, providing a wealth of data that allows it to provide tailored services such as vehicle servicing that is based on real-time operational data and actual vehicle usage. For example, more accurate planning of oil and filter changes reduces the amount of time vehicles spend in the workshop.

The volume of operational data from on-road Scania vehicles is doubling every 20 months, which is being used by engineers to design new features or improve existing functions. Engineers can also analyse data to understand component wear and durability as the starting point for design improvements.

Henriksson said that although deliveries grew last year, order bookings for trucks fell by 12% compared to 2017, but he added that demand in Europe remains at a good level.

He said: “In Latin America, Brazil’s recovery is progressing. In Asia, order bookings fell in 2018 compared to last year. Demand in Eurasia remains strong, even though order bookings decreased somewhat in Russia towards year-end.”

Scania is one of the top 25 asset finance companies in Europe according to the 2018 Asset Finance Europe 50 (AFE50) rankings survey, published by Asset Finance Policy and Asset Finance International. The AFE50 is Europe’s first complete annual ranking survey of business equipment and fleet lessors.