Toyota SA has halted its sales and service operations to conform with the government’s orders that non-essential businesses must shut down.
However, up to 167 Toyota and Hino dealers across the country are on standby to support the operation of essential services during the 21-day lockdown.
These include food delivery services, medical support services, selected municipal services and emergency services. Taxi-industry suppliers responsible for transporting essential-services providers such as bank personnel, supermarket or hospital staff also eligible for support.
Boasting the widest dealer network, all calls for support services during lockdown are logged through the Toyota Customer Care line (0800 139 111). The customer care line is manned by agents operating from their homes. Once they have evaluated the support needed for an essential-services vehicle, a call would then be sent via a dedicated line to the nearest dealer to offer the required assistance. Dealer assistance is in the form of vehicle repairs and parts’ distribution, and is only offered to essential-services customers. In conjunction with the Automobile Association of South Africa (AA), TSAM has also put plans in place to support logistics and mobility of essential services should vehicles break down.
Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing at TSAM, Leon Theron says: “On behalf of the entire team at TSAM, we are grateful to the medical practitioners, supermarket staff, logistics operators, banking personnel, law-enforcement agents as well as taxi drivers and operators for their continued service while the country is on lockdown.
“We are proud to announce that we have already supplied vehicle parts and made repairs to some 70 essential-services vehicles (by COB on 3 April 2020). We have dealerships in every province and we will continue to do our part in keeping essential-service vehicles moving – whether they’re in the form of mobile clinics or responsible for moving COVID-19 test samples.”
