Manufactured for Sustainability

When you read a text and the same word keeps on being used, the human brain will quickly think that it has already read a passage. An engaging text is therefore one that utilises different words with the same meaning. Thus, when writing my articles, I have trained myself to remember all the key words that I have used. For instance, the word “text”, which I have put there in the first line and “article” article a little later on. As you can see, a lot of crafting, goes into a magazine. I am doing this without the help of AI, I manufacture this publication.

And this word, manufacture, could be the theme for this issue of Asian Trucker. For instance, you will be able to read about UD’s assembly plant now being operational in Malaysia. This is a new facility, while FUSO’s plant has been up and running for decades. Also a force to reckon with for decades is HAMMAR, which we will feature extensively in our cover story, commemorating their 50th anniversary. Hengst too, has a good reason to be jolly as they are celebrating their 10th year of their Singapore office being set up. Frank Maergner talks about door-to-door sales, which we call “Klinkenputzen” in German, meaning polishing doorknobs.

Our truck feature showcases a familiar vehicle, which just got an upgrade. It has been adapted to the local needs. Taking the same approach of being best suited for the local environment, Isuzu has introduced a range of new vehicles, fit for the Malaysian market. The former is a CBU unit while the latter trucks are being assembled locally. However, that makes both of them manufactured for sustainability of the business and the client’s business. In our country report you will be able to find the same thinking applied for a German brand operating in China.

Having tried, I have concluded that AI (Artificial Intelligence) may not the right tool for us at the moment. For a while, we had a chat bot on our website, fed with all the magazines we published. The bot could have been used as a tool to give you the history of trucking in Malaysia and Southeast-Asia. However, many a times the answers of that bot would be plain wrong, even attributing certain events by one brand to their fiercest competitor. Schools are currently trying to address the issue of students using AI to write their assignments. Meanwhile, my articles are all 100 percent hand-crafted. Manufacturing stems from Latin, meaning to make by hand. Somehow, I feel that the transport industry is still one where human interactions and manual work plays a big role. During the pandemic we only did very few video calls. Even though, one can use computers to design a truck, eventually, a panel of drivers typically tests the vehicle in real life.

All hands on deck: the Malaysia Commercial Vehicle Exhibition 2024, organised by Asian Trucker, is going to be the biggest such event in Southeast-Asia again. For the sixth time, we will be hand-delivering an exceptional gathering of the industry. MAN Truck & Bus alongside PETRONAS as the main sponsors have already told us about their plans for the event and it promises to be a massive programme. Hengst Asia Pacific is joining in with their celebration of their 10th anniversary while others are whispering to us about the news they are going to release. It would surely be best to experience this in person, after we have put the final touches onto it in the next couple of days. For me, the most exciting part is the fact that I can actively assist each exhibitor with their needs, making it a curated, a hand-made event, rather than just a run of the mill session.

See you soon to shake your hands, welcoming you to Asian Trucker at MCVE.

Hengst Filtration | Hydraulic Filtration @MAN