Whether its business or personal life, Trust is something that we must build to sustain longer. In logistics manufacturers rely on carriers and carriers must rely on their man force and suppliers to keep supply chain running. Trusting new suppliers or new people is always hard but we must give chances to new people or new service providers/ suppliers.
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In 2021 we made a major mistake by trusting and relying on a new supplier for our equipment purchase. As a person in logistics for 10 years i always preferred Stoughton and Great Dane Trailers because of their durability, service standards and reliability. In 2020 we thought to consider Hyundai Translead because of their improved durability as per our allies and friends in transportation industry. We needed 10 dry van trailers in 2021 and we split our orders from Stoughton portion to Hyundai. Placed order for 4 Hyundai dry van trailers via their authorized dealership in Canada “Breadner Trailers”. As per experienced and senior sales Executive at dealership we provided required information and mentioned specs for trailers. Hyundai’s dealership sent us standard purchase order sheets for 4 units with all pricing and specs with a estimated delivery in June 2021.
After a long waiting we were excited for our new Hyundai trailers. We sent follow up emails to Hyundai’s dealership in May 2021 (after 4 months of placing and confirming order) to get estimated delivery date. Hyundai’s dealership didn’t reply our email, instead they called us back with great news. The great news was that Hyundai canceled all pending orders as they are short on workers and short on raw material. I was shocked to hear this nonsense statement but still i offered senior sales executive of Hyundai’s dealership with extended time and even any price increase. I understand Hyundai’s position and about no raw material or no workers but whenever they have raw material or workers, and they will back on production they can get our order ready but only word i heard back was “sorry”
So, this sorry cost us in huge money lose, equipment shortage which resulted in some service failures as well.
Thank God we didn’t relied on Hyundai Translead completely. We got our ordered trailers from Stoughton on given delivery date and agreed price.
At that point we realized best is still best and we should always keep trusted partners on top while making decisions.
On other hand, we learnt that some of our competitors received their complete orders on big batches from same company/dealership and they sold 50% of their trailers same day to small trucking companies at double price through their shell companies. These carriers sell extra trailers to USA based small companies through their shell/ second market dealers. Many (Information obtained from confidential sources and not to disclose names or provide any names/sources)
As per laws probably they can do it but is it ethical? Especially when it comes to such a big brand. It takes years to make a brand but some people at bottom do whatever they need to do to generate extra profits.
But they do it at cost of damaging a well-established brand in market.
We consider it as breaking trust and exploiting carriers. We are planning to put this matter to Hyundai’s management and see what is their stand about it and do they really screw up customers by taking orders and then cancelling everything very close to due date and leave customers with no options?
We will post outcome soon.
If we hear back any satisfactory answer from Hyundai, we will make you aware of it.
Otherwise, we will start a awareness campaign starting from June 2022, which will include social media, professional online portals, transportation clubs and associations. Word of mouth strategy and lastly OOH awareness strategy to aware other carriers about poor business ethics of Hyundai and its dealerships. In June 2022, we are launching our trailers with big decals trailer wraps showing Hyundai's quality and service level.
Harry Sahota
VP Operations