Speaking at the Future of Logistics conference in Dubai, Kay-Wolf Ahlden, President & CEO of Mercedes-Benz Trucks/ Daimler Commercial Vehicles MENA outlined how Daimler was transforming itself from a traditional supplier of transport vehicles to a partner providing holistic, long-term solutions for all who work in the transport and logistics industry.
Host and moderator of the conference Lars Jensen began the first panel discussion by asking what 2022 held in store for the industry and how will we get back to normal?
Mr Ahlden responded to this by saying that partnership and closer cooperation will be the way forward for Mercedez-Benz Trucks in 2022 while “taking the learnings of last year to work out a new operating model.”
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One element of the model, according to Mr Ahlden, will be a hybrid work environment. “In the UAE Daimler is back to working from office 100% while in many other parts of the world it is 0%. So we have to work with the hybrid model and we have to make this the new normal.”
At the same time, Mr Ahlden predicted that the demand for trucks in 2022 will be higher than what manufacturers can supply. To alleviate this problem Mecedes-Benz Trucks has enhanced its after sales services in terms of parts supply and technical service so customers can extract greater performance from their existing fleets.
Decarbonisation and related infrastructure will also be another focus area for Mercedes-Benz Trucks as it helps distributors and customers convert their fleets to electric and hydrogen-fuelled trucks in the Middle East region.
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