Amanda Cotter admits if she knew six years ago, what she now knows about the industry, she might never have taken the plunge to become one of New Zealand’s top four salespersons for the Fuso brand.
I enjoy helping to produce a vehicle for my customers to grow their business, she says When you deliver a truck, and the customer is happy, that gives me great satisfaction. You also know you’ve got it right when they come straight back and give you an order for the next truck, says Cotter.
Cotter works at Keith Andrews Trucks Auckland branch and looks after many key account customers .
It is her ability to build strong relationships with a customer service focus as well as having a passion for the industry that sets her apart.
She admits to rolling her sleeves up to occasionally clean and groom a truck prior to delivery, or driving ‘down the line’ to fetch an urgently needed truck for a customer in Auckland.
Prior to working for Keith Andrews Trucks, Cotter spent 17 years driving trucks in the UK and then parlayed her knowledge from the cab into a successful sales career.
She found herself working for two different recruitment agencies placing truck drivers into temporary roles as the country went into a recession.
An opportunity arose to emigrate with her husband and daughter to New Zealand when he gained a job as a Class 5 driver for a major fuel distributor.
Cotter says she then saw a sales opportunity with the former Roadlife Trucks operation in Wiri that appealed, and where she could put her passion for trucks and her sales experience to good use.
When I joined the company, the incumbent management were determined that a woman could fulfill the role, she says. A year later when the business changed hands to the current management team, we all benefitted from a lot of training and personal development.
Cotter says the support from the Keith Andrews Trucks management team and the team around her, helped enormously as she continually learned the ropes of the job.
You need to be up to speed with the specifications and the legislative compliance, says Cotter.
Unlike the UK where trucks are all built to a similar specification, almost every truck sold in New Zealand is bespoke, and everyone wants something a little bit different, she says.
Cotter says her biggest personal challenge was understanding the cultural and compliance differences between the UK and New Zealand.
She says the class structure of the UK wouldn’t see her dealing directly with the owner of a transport company, but here it’s commonplace, and she speaks to many on a first name basis.
As an industry we need to create easier pathways for young women and men to get their Class 2 license, such as putting smaller trucks in the fleet for them to drive, says Cotter.
From there we can then develop them into the next generation of Class 4 and five drivers.
Cotter says she is passionate about the Fuso brand because it’s a proven reliable and offers one of the best cost-effective options available , when you look at the total cost of ownership of a truck. She says the quality of the truck brands research and development shows in the finished product.
I am passionate about the Fuso brand, and believe that we have a high quality product, backed up by the best warranty of the available three, she says.
You can’t put a good warranty on a bad truck.
