“We are a one-stop shop for all your trucking support needs” says Managing Director Riaan Claassen and Powertrain Director Ivan Van Aswegen from Universal Equipment.
For Claassen and Aswegen, there is no doubt that they are the ones to call for they can “offer customers the full package, from sales to service, to warranty and spare parts”. In addition, they are “able to differentiate” themselves from their “trucking competitors” based on their “strong heritage as Drivetrain specialists, which is something they cannot offer”. The company slogan here at Universal Equipment is “Delivering Success” and that is exactly what they do as a dealership. “We offer the best products together with service excellence based on the best expertise”.
Claassen and Aswegen in October of last year, 2020, took on the Powerstar Service Dealership and partnered with Trucking Repair Specialists, Inter-coastal Commercial, in a joint venture, based out in Port Elizabeth. This dealership has been appointed recently as a full service dealership – offering sales, parts and servicing for Powerstar Trucks. For Claassen and Aswegen, their main focus will be “on the Powerstar FT range of light to medium sized trucks”. In further elaboration, they will also focus on “the VX range of construction trucks” as they have “always distributed construction machinery in the Eastern Cape”.
Claassen and Aswegen are “excited with the prospects for the sales of the new generation of FT trucks with its well-known drivetrain” that they believe compliments their existing brands. They believe they are “able to offer the local Eastern Cape market a solid offering of good service and a well-built truck that can compete again the dominant Japanese brands in the medium-sized truck market”. With a long historical focus on Truck Drivetrain through their dealerships for Cummins Diesel Engines and Allison Automatic Transmissions, as well as expertise in manual gearboxes, the legacy of Universal Equipment in the construction equipment industry speaks for itself.
“For the FT range, we like the drivetrain components of Cummins Engines and ZF transmissions in a well-built truck” explains Claassen and Aswegen as one of the reasons why they like Powerstar vehicles. Furthermore, “for Powerstar we like the affordability, reliability and versatility of the trucks”. It even comes down to the “professionalism and easy of doing business with ESI” that keeps them coming back.
Universal Equipment is privately owned with 90% of its shares held by its 4 Executive Directors, with Claassen and Aswegen further boasting that “25% of the business is Black Owned”. “We are a fully fledged distributor of equipment and machinery, representing too global brands for 40 years in the Eastern Cape Province”. They stand by the fact that they are known for being a “progressive business with strong and long-standing business relationships that offers professional service and support for their world class products”.
With the business vision being to become the “best privately owned and independent distributor for machinery and equipment for OEMs in South Africa”, Universal Equipment is not afraid to step up and stand out.
