33 Nildo Pedrosa has worked in the vehicle rental segment since he created the Locavel, 20 years ago. It started with cars, but he soon saw a new business opportunity, finding that he could rent truck truck loading cranes for power grid maintenance and expansion companies. He realized that the few rental companies at the time had minimal experience and offered terrible service, while charging a lot. He entered this niche market in 1997, with three units. Now, with his expertise he compares the light and heavy segments and says, they are totally different markets. He pinpoints one of the differences: “Heavy vehicles are a lot of technology embedded in them, which requires training of driver, maintenance and operation crew.”This makes the operation and maintenance costs very high. To illustrates with figures Pedrosa talks about purchasing components. He says a full truck loading crane service can cost R$ 35,400, - that is, the cost of a brand new Fiat Uno, he says. Currently the heavy vehicle fleet at Locavel numbers about 200 units, including trucks - with various load capacities - buses and minibuses. The average renewal age is five years. But some companies new renew vehicles every 36 months. This is why Pedrosa says the market requires heavy investment. Most contracts are with private companies, while there is potential in the public sector, especially in state-owned water, sewage and energy companies. When making a long-term forecast for the rental of heavy vehicles, worldwide, Pedrosa says taking places where the business is well established, especially in the United States and Europe, as examples, the trend is for extension and consolidation of markets. For him, one example of efficient growth is Penske, in the USA, and the largest in the industry. However, his optimism changes when he talks about the outlook for 2015 in Brazil.”With the crisis we are in, a drastic reduction of the fleet in 2015 and 2016 is probable, as the main market for this segment is major infrastructure projects, large construction companies and companies in the oil and gas industry,” he says. He concludes that many of them are halting work and investment. For those who want to know more about the heavy vehicle segment, Pedrosa says it is not for adventurers or amateurs.”It’s a market for serious professionals, with a large borrowing and investment capacity. Any medium truck, without implements, costs over R$ 300,000, the equivalent of almost ten light vehicles,” he says. He also mentions the difference in customers, which are mainly operations professionals, which require investment in training and recycling of qualifications. A tough game Working in heavy vehicle rental can be a good business, but it calls for persistence and professionalism, as it wavers with the pace of the national economy. vendo, a probabilidade é de uma drástica redução da frota no biênio 2015 e 2016, já que o principal mercado deste segmento são as grandes obras de infraestrutura, as grandes construtoras e empresas do segmento de petróleo e gás”, revela. E conclui informando que muitas delas “estão parando suas obras e investimentos”. Para quem deseja saber mais do segmento de locação de pesados, Nildo Pedrosa esclarece que este não é um segmento para aventureiros nem amadores. “É um mercado para profissionais sérios, com grande capacidade de endividamento e investimento. Qualquer caminhão médio, sem implementos, passa da casa de 300 mil reais, quantia que equivale a quase 10 veículos leves”. Ele lembra ainda o diferencial de público usuário, “principalmente os profissionais de operação”, nos quais têm de ser feitos investimentos em qualificação e reciclagem dos conhecimentos. Nildo Pedrosa Conselheiro Nacional da ABLA e presidente do Sindiloc PE Member of ABLA National Board and president of Sindiloc PE
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