Honouring CV Industry Excellence |

The 10th Edition of Apollo CV Awards 2019 honoured excellence in the Indian CV industry.

Team CV

The tenth edition of Apollo-CV Awards (2019) set the bar higher. Held on February 19, 2019, at Mumbai, the event began on a sombre note as the CV industry doyens paid homage to the martyrs of the Pulwama attack that had 40 Central Reserve Police Force personnel laying down their lives for the nation. The evening gathered momentum with a keynote address that followed from the Keynote speaker this year in Gianenrico Griffini, Chairman, International Truck of the Year, and Editor, Vie & Trasporti, Italy. Griffini drew attention to a study on global trends in the commercial vehicle industry and presented a study on India’s standing compared to the rest of the world. Marking yet another round of resounding success, the awards, like the editions prior, received strong support of the CV industry. Apollo Tyres, the partner since inception, yet again provided wholehearted support for the tenth time in a row. Work on the tenth edition began with the inclusion of nomination forms in the November 2018 issue of CV magazine. The forms contained a nomination call for both, the fleet side and the non-fleet side of the Indian commercial vehicle industry. Nomination calls were sent across to all the stakeholders of the commercial vehicle industry including OEMs, CV dealers, application builders and transporters. With most CV OEMs posting strong sales numbers in the first eight months of the year (2018), there was a reason to cheer. Concerns loomed over the headwinds too. The most prominent being the lingering effect of demonetisation, the continuing effect of GST, implementation of the blower norms, and the sudden and surprising announcement as well as implementation of the new axle load norms.

While there was some trepidation in the number of nominations had on the fleet and non-fleet side, nominations started rolling in soon after they were sent. In an environment where the macroeconomic indicators posed a challenge, over 600 nominations on the fleet side were received by the Apollo CV Awards team as well as its associate, Metric Global. The format for filling the technical specifications and a few other values were mailed to CV OEMs along with the nomination form. This decreased any margin for misunderstanding and error. The jury, comprising of Kaushik Madhavan, Director – Automotive & Transportation, Frost & Sullivan; Rajat Kataria, Divisional Head, Marketing – CV (Asia Pacific, Middle East, North Africa), Apollo Tyres; Dilip Chhabria, Founder, DC Design; VG Ramakrishnan, Managing Director, Avanteum Advisors; Girish Mirchandani, Editor, Transtopics, and Bhushan Mhapralkar, Editor, CV magazine, met in Mumbai on January 10, 2019, to adjudge OEMs (trucks and buses) and CV application award categories. The process by no means was an easy task. The non-fleet nominations marked a relative decline albeit strongly reflected on the changes – the undercurrents and complexities, that worked their way through the CV industry in 2018. New trends, including the rise in GVW by a big margin and a near reversal in the tonnage shift, were observed. Also observed was a move towards new technologies to up efficiency, safety and comfort. The HCVs, ICVs and LCVs turned out in good numbers. They indicated the changes that took place in the industry in 2018.

Reflecting upon the stark as well as the subtle changes in the landscape, the CVs that were nominated made it tough for the jury to decide the winners. Especially in the wake of a firm resolve by the CV industry to conquer challenges; to keep moving, and to turn out new, exciting products. Many intricacies evolved during the judging process. Long debates followed; a deep exploration of domain knowledge and experience was resorted to. It was after a considerable effort that the final results were achieved. They were born out of the consideration for parameters like fitness for application, quality of aggregates, fuel efficiency and driveability, an option to have a vehicle better suited for the purpose, price, and sales. This was applied to vehicles that were made available during the 2018 calendar year. The jury arrived at 26 awards to do justice to all the constituents. As an Apollo CV Awards associate, Metric Global vetted fleet operator and dealer nominations. These were put through the wringer using the Journey of Excellence parameter derived from the British Quality Foundation.

To host senior representatives of the CV industry was a privilege. To watch them interact with the incumbents provided a glimpse of the shape of things to come. The picture (in this section) should provide a fair idea of what happened at the Jury meeting on January 10, 2019. A panel discussion on ‘Inventing the CV industry’ preceded the awards evening. As one may discover, the industry heavyweights did not hesitate to air their views on important issues. Let us get on to the nominations and who were awarded for excellence at the tenth edition of Apollo CV Awards 2019.

The winners are: