The truck of the model LPT 3118 had become very popular among transport entrepreneurs as soon as they entered the country as there were high chances for transporters to make extra profit from the vehicle. [break]
“We introduced 12-wheeler trucks in the market about 14 months ago. We had even managed to sell 35 units of LPT 3118 before transport syndicates barred the vehicles from plying on major routes,” said Santosh Khatiwada, the senior sales manager of Sipradi Trading´s Commercial Vehicle Unit.
Sipradi Trading is selling more than 150 models of commercial vehicles that can be broadly divided into five different families - trucks, tippers and tractors, bus and mini bus, mini trucks, pick ups and small pick ups.
Sipradi has offices and representations throughout the country. It sells Tata´s range of heavy, medium and light commercial as well as passenger vehicles. Sipradi has the largest owned network of sales service and spares centers in Nepal.
According to sources at Sipradi, truckers´ syndicate barred the heavy vehicle from plying on major routes stating that time is not ripe for the transporters to shift to 12-wheeler trucks as they had embraced 10-wheeler trucks only some years ago.
Truckers barred 12-wheeler Tata LPT 3118 from plying on major routes not only for stability in the market but also to ensure fair competition as 12-wheeler trucks generate more profit than 10-wheeler trucks due to its increased carrying capacity.
Tata LPT 3118, which is priced Rs 3,450,000 in the market of Nepal, is India´s first Multi Axle truck with ´lift axle´. It is equipped with Automatic Load Sensing Value for optimum lift axle function. The Gross Vehicle Weight (GVW) is 31,000 kg, thus offering more payloads, minimum operating cost and in turn more earnings for the operator.
It delivers a grade ability of 21 percent. It has a maximum gear speed of 79.1 kmph and a ground clearance of 248 mm. It is an ideal vehicle to ferry cement, petrochemicals, fertilizers, food grains, timber and general cargo and can be given shape of containers and tankers.
“We are still selling the 12-wheeler truck to captive users (those who use the vehicle for private purpose) and we believe that the market will soon shift to 12-wheeler as per the requirement of a growing economy," Khatiwada added.
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