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Archana Chaudhary

BPCL, along with Cummins Auto, will draw up annual maintenance service contracts for truck fleets and provide services such as spare parts, towing and preventive maintenance at selected outlets.

MUMBAI, March 17

BHARAT Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) has tied up with Cummins Auto Services Ltd (CASL) for providing truck owners with maintenance services at its retail outlets along national highways.

"The idea is to make the fuel station a `one-stop-truck-shop' where the vehicle can avail fuel and maintenance at the same time,'' Mr Rajiv Chaturvedi, Executive Director (Retail), BPCL, told Business Line.

The move is particularly targeted at truck fleet owners who own BPCL's Petrocard debit card.

The company, along with CASL, will draw up annual maintenance service contracts for truck fleets and provide services such as spare parts, towing and preventive maintenance at selected outlets.

"The outlets would preferably be `Pure for Sure' outlets to ensure fuel quality, apart from the service guarantee,'' Mr Chaturvedi said.

BPCL has identified 75 to 80 locations along national highways for providing these services. Of these, 45 retail outlets are already operating, Mr Chaturvedi said.

CASL, a subsidiary of Cummins India Ltd, had launched its automotive services business named `Suraksha', in January this year for providing service to any brand of commercial vehicle at a distance of every 100 km along national highways.

"A research on movement along national highways proved that 52 per cent of traffic moves along 11 per cent stretch of highways, especially the golden quadrilateral connecting the four major cities,'' he said. BPCL is now identifying more locations along the 10,000-km stretch.

According to Mr Chaturvedi, the service will benefit truck fleet owners, particularly Petrocard-holders as it will not only simplify payments through an Internet backbone, but will also allow fleet owners to keep track of truck movement along highways.

BPCL has already set up convenios at a majority of its 4,500-odd retail outlets across the country and has tied up with a number of corporates including Hutchison Max, ITC, Sony and Kodak to provide various services.

"We believe that over the next five years, nearly 10 per cent of our retail income would come from these value add-ons at our outlets,'' Mr Chaturvedi said.

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