By John Lee.
Volvo Trucks has inaugurated joint service centres in the Iraq cities of Baghdad and Basra, reports Construction Week Online.
The service centres, built in collaboration with local country distributor ZamZam Spring, will service trucks made by Volvo and Mack, part of the Volvo group.
Stefan Soenchen, Iraq country manager of Volvo Trucks, told PMV Middle East that the Baghdad centre is the second-largest Volvo Trucks workshop in the Middle East.
"What I am most proud of is that they have been specified to operate to European standards. All equipment is from Europe. But now comes the big task of building the platform to be able to deliver to what it is equipped to do."
Building up the centres' systems will take several months, including recruitment and training, with up to 50 people to be employed across the two sites. The service centre in Basra covers an area of 9,000m², and the ground had to be raised by two metres.
Waiel Kair, managing director of ZamZam Spring, said:
"Delivering a service centre to a European standard is a significant achievement. This puts us two to three years ahead of the competition here. That is how much time competitors would need to catch up to the service capacity we can now offer around Baghdad and Basra."
Soenchen said that the construction was aided with the import of material from the UAE and elsewhere, and the approvals process was far quicker than if it had been carried out in Europe.
"This could not have been done faster anywhere else. This will set a new standard for the industry on what is possible and what can be expected. This is both from our customers’ point of view, as well as raising the bar for competing truck manufacturers."
(Source: Construction Week Online)
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