Hino South Africa collected its third Platinum Award when the National Automobile Dealers’ Association (NADA) announced the results of its annual Dealer Satisfaction Index (DSI) survey on 15 September, and is the only Commercial Vehicle OEM to achieve this distinction. The survey, which is now in its 25^th year, was not conducted last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Commercial Vehicle survey was introduced in 2008 when the highest score was 78%.

Hino previously won the highest rating in this survey, in 2017 and repeated the feat in 2019. Hino scored 86.8% in 2021 which was a dominant 6.2% above the score of the runner-up. Hino scored 85.4% in 2017 and 86.1% in 2019, as well as 83.8% (Gold) in the intervening year, underlining the consistency of the brand.

The NADA DSI survey monitors the health of the relationship between dealers and their respective manufacturers or distributors and this year 39 brands were independently researched by Lightstone Auto, which has conducted this in-depth survey since the awards’ inception in 1996. There were 169 responses from Commercial Vehicle dealerships this year.

The awards are made according to a calculation from a scorecard with many questions, which are given various weightings in terms of importance. The Platinum tier was introduced in 2017 to reward brands achieving a score of 85% or more.

“We are enormously proud of this Platinum Award achievement for the third time in four surveys as it underlines the ongoing success of Hino’s international Total Support strategy which involves building strong, meaningful and lasting relationships between Hino Motors in Japan, our dealers, suppliers, our local head office in Sandton and, most importantly, our customers,” commented Pieter Klerck, General Manager of Hino SA.

“This latest accolade follows Hino’s long-running high placings in the quarterly DATA Track Comparative Truck Survey, which is an independent customer satisfaction survey used since 1989 at a highly regarded benchmark for local truck owners and operators. This survey uses detailed interviews with major fleet operations regarding levels of sales, technical service, and parts supply,

“In addition, Hino dealers made a clean sweep of the top three positions in the commercial vehicle category at the annual MSX (previously Sewells) NADA Business of the Year (BOTY) awards which were announced earlier this year. This survey was in its 23^rd year and honours the exceptional performance of managers at automotive dealerships in South Africa,” added Klerck.

Pieter Klerck, General Manager of Hino South Africa, who is justifiably proud of Hino SA receiving its third Dealer Satisfaction Index Platinum Award from the National Automobile Dealers’ Association