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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 gran-
des 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 pe-
sados, 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 re-
ais, 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