Daimler India Commercial Vehicles seems to be the first CV maker to restart its operations post the Covid-19 lockdown phase. The brand has announced that its factory operations, albeit in a phased manner, begin from today. The operations begin in less than 24 hours after the local authorities gave the company permission to restart. In short, this shows the company’s responsiveness to changing market conditions. Proper sanitisation, as well as social distancing, will be maintained. At present, limited staff has been asked to come to work. Depending on the situation at a later date, all 4,000+ employees will be asked to resume. The employees too have been asked to follow the new protocols. Dealerships too are starting to open, depending on the ease in local government’s restrictions.
A part of the preparedness is because of the Crisis Management Team or CMT that was formed right after the lockdown was announced. The CMT used to hold daily virtual meetings of board members and used to brainstorm. The CMT team consists of individuals from different departments within DICV. This helped in a big fashion as all the department issues were covered. DICV says that CMT ensured that the company employees’ health conditions were regularly monitored, the plant’s sprawling 400-acres were cleaned and even distribution of ration to the needy. All this was done while maintaining social distancing.
DICV had moved its entire range of trucks and buses to BS6 much ahead of the deadline. The company is quite positive about the demand for its new BS6 vehicles. Not only do these promise a higher mileage but the service intervals too are longer while warranty has gone up. The prices though weren’t revealed at the time of launch but we were told that they are only a bare minimum.
