Trends in the Utility Vehicle Market: Forces of Change...
By J. Wade Tollison, Jr.,
Marketing Manager
Commercial Division, Professional Segment, Toro
These are exciting times for the utility vehicle market, whether you are a manufacturer, a supply chain stakeholder, or an end-user customer. For utility vehicle manufacturers, a healthy tension must be balanced between finding better ways to help customers get their current jobs done today while at the same time digesting and responding to rapidly evolving technology, trends, regulations, policies, competitive landscape, and customer requirements. For the utility vehicle market, now more than ever, customer valued innovation must embrace all of these “forces” of change. This article will open by highlighting trends in the utility vehicle market towards improving job productivity and environmental sustainability, and how The Toro Company has responded for the markets we serve in partnership with our distributor channel. It will close by noting potential innovative future technologies, and how they might be introduced into utility vehicle platforms to help customers perform their jobs better, faster, more conveniently, and “greener” than before.
Turbulent Times Evolve Customer Requirements
One impact of the recent convergence of recessionary economic times with environmental sustainability policies and initiatives is that utility vehicles have become an increasingly integral part of a turf or facility maintenance equipment fleet. Managers face heightened demands to increase the overall productivity of their equipment and personnel, yet at the same time conserve fuel, lower noise levels, and reduce emissions. They must navigate through short-term capital and operating budget constraints without sacrificing the quality expectations and the desired outcomes of their various stakeholders. In these turbulent times, utility vehicles provide a high level of versatility to yield an attractive return on investment vs. other traditional alternatives such as specialized equipment or manual labor.
Quickly fading in the current economy are the days of purchasing utility vehicles primarily for the purposes of personnel transport or “people moving.” Utility vehicles must not only be “enablers” of work by transporting workers to job sites, but also “performers” of work. They must provide more, well, “utility”. Productivity has now moved to the forefront of purchaser’s minds when they are considering a utility vehicle purchase. Productivity can be defined as “the amount of output per unit of input”, with “input” in this context representing labor, equipment, and capital. A utility vehicle manufacturer must target their innovations in new product development to perform the specific jobs their customers are trying to accomplish, while meeting the metrics their customers utilize to define the successful execution and completion of those jobs.
Anthony W. Ulwick, an author and leading authority on innovation, asserts that “companies must become outcome-driven. They must know which jobs their customers are trying to get done, the outcomes customers are trying to achieve, and the constraints that may prevent customers from adopting or using a new product. Companies can create new and significant customer value by helping customers perform ancillary jobs, new jobs, or more jobs; by improving customers’ chances of getting a specific job done to satisfaction; and by removing obstacles that prevent customers from doing a job at all.”
Performance Matters
For Toro, many of our customers in golf course, government, educational, and other markets need to get more jobs done with the same or fewer resources than ever before. While short and long distance transportation is still a primary use of utility vehicles, the accelerating trend towards higher productivity has more heavily weighted the customer’s requirements for heavy-duty hauling and towing capacity, at job sites ranging from golf courses, campuses and sports fields, to parks, industrial plants, construction sites, and military facilities.
In addition to the high customer demand for hauling and towing capacity, customers also require increased durability, ride comfort, and fuel economy. Toro has responded with the new Workman® HD Series and MD Series of utility vehicles to deliver the work productivity our customers demand in many customer-valued ways, including industry-leading payload and towing capacities, as well as improved ergonomics and superior ride quality.
The Workman HD Series is a heavy-duty utility vehicle with design components such as an I-beam shaped DeDion rear axle, a truss-like front space frame, integrated wheel bearings and 4-wheel hydraulic disk brakes - all integrated to provide the highest total carrying capacity in the turf industry, in order to tackle the toughest jobs. The HD Series delivers optimum operator comfort even in undulating terrain through its innovative suspension system. Front suspension consists of an independent, double A-frame with dual coil springs and shock absorbers that allows for 5 ¾” front travel, and rear suspension consists of the DeDion rear axle with dual leaf springs and shock absorbers that provides 3” rear travel. Attachments such as topdressers, spreaders, sprayers, cabs and lifts add tremendous versatility to this work platform.
The Workman MD Series is a CARB and EPA compliant mid-duty utility vehicle that features hefty payload and towing capacities. Recent product enhancements have aligned with trends within the ATV industry in regards to the consumer “ride experience.” The MD Series features a SRQ™, or Superior Ride Quality, suspension system. This system consists of an independent A-Frame front suspension with coil over shock absorbers, and swing-arm rear suspension with coil over shock absorbers, coupled with a patented active in-frame twister joint to maintain positive traction and a comfortable ride in varying terrain. This ride comfort lowers the physical fatigue of operators, and improves their overall work mindset, which translates to additional productivity during their work day as they travel from one job site to another.
In addition to ride comfort, other ergonomic productivity-enhancing features that Toro and other utility vehicle manufacturers focus on include improved driving sight lines, additional leg room for operators and passengers, easy-to-use operating controls, and “creature-comfort” customizable accessories such as deluxe cab enclosures, canopy tops, windshields and automated bed lift kits.
Environmental Impact Factor
As “green” awareness and initiatives continue to gain traction, managers have started asking utility vehicle manufacturers questions such as, “How do I balance the performance characteristics of utility vehicles that I require to productively accomplish my job – such as power, hauling and towing capacity, comfort, and versatility – with reduced and improved environmental impact?” In response, manufacturers are adapting and designing vehicles to meet those ever-increasing customer demands. This area (“how”) of customer requirements within the utility vehicle industry is evolving even more rapidly than the actual jobs (“what”) that the vehicles enable.
In regards to utility vehicles, the interpretation of “green” initiatives tends to focus on elements related to the power source, whether the issue is noise reduction, improved fuel economy or lower emissions. One alternative for reduced carbon dioxide emissions and reduced noise has been the introduction of lead-acid battery powered electric utility vehicle models such as the Toro Workman MDE. This technology allows jobs with similar payload and towing capacities to be performed with quiet operation so that customers or constituents are not disturbed by engine noise. The trade-off for lead-acid battery powered electric models vs. gasoline or diesel powered models is reduced “pedal down run-time”, so awareness of actual usage should be factored into purchase criteria. Contrary to “dated” assumptions or experience, the electric utility vehicle models in the market today do have the power to meet the payload, towing, and run-time requirements for many customer applications.
Within the heavy-duty utility vehicle product segment, technology such as an electronic fuel injection system with a catalytic converter, as utilized by the Toro Workman HDX, can significantly reduce operator and bystander dB(A), as well as improve overall fuel economy. Toro’s Workman HDX models with electronic fuel injection addressed both the fuel delivery and exhaust system sides of the equation, with the result that our new system already exceeds 2011 EPA compliance standards. From a carbon dioxide emissions standpoint, manufacturers will need to be EPA Tier IV compliant, a compliance that the Workman HD Series achieved in 2008. In regards to bio-fuels compatibility, a more efficient, cleaner technology has been implemented into Toro’s diesel powered utility vehicles, allowing the use of biodiesel fuel blends up to the B20 level. Biodiesel is an alternative fuel source derived from biological sources that are biodegradable, and their emissions are more environmentally friendly than petroleum-based diesel fuels.
Future Technology Developments
Customer value in utility vehicle offerings will continue to be driven by how many different jobs can be executed with utility vehicles to achieve the desired customer outcomes. Utility vehicles must evolve and become better at doing their current jobs, accomplish even more jobs than they currently do, and execute those jobs utilizing cleaner or “greener” methods.
In the future, in addition to innovative work capabilities, we think that technology will allow vehicles to become “smarter” and more “autonomous” through the implementation of additional onboard electronic systems. One example could be GPS technology that would provide the ability to scout the job site, or report on what is occurring in a given environment or situation. This would allow for better understanding of the work efficiency of equipment and labor that is deployed, or provide details on agronomic or facility conditions to assist in endeavors such as more precise irrigation water management or chemical turf applications. This could address potential shortages of labor or natural resources, deliver operating budget savings, and allow human capital to be deployed to other specialized jobs, thus raising overall operational productivity and efficiency.
Utility vehicles, due to their broad range of jobs, are conducive to incorporating and benefiting from the developments within alternative fuel technology. Requirements in operating range are obviously much lower than with the automotive segment, thus many of the technologies that are in or approaching commercialization in that segment could also effectively be adapted into utility vehicle product platforms. There are a number of potentially viable technologies in the marketplace that could emerge for the next generation of utility vehicle “power”, some of which might include advanced faster- charging lithium-ion batteries, engine-battery hybrids, and hydrogen fuel cells.
One example of Toro’s investigation and research of potential alternative fuel solutions within utility vehicle platforms is a “test fleet” of hydrogen fuel cell powered Workman utility vehicles that were developed in partnership with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). NYSERDA has hydrogen re-fueling infrastructure that will allow Toro to gain operational experience and evaluate the technology as the vehicles perform on varied terrain in “real” working situations as part of the maintenance equipment fleet at various New York state government operated facilities. Some of the advantages of hydrogen fuel cells are cleaner emissions as they exhaust water vapor through the exhaust process, provide for more rapid refueling versus recharging of battery-powered vehicles, and increase overall efficiency. Hydrogen could even be a better option for utility vehicles than the general automotive industry, as a single fueling station can support a utility vehicle fleet, whereas the automotive sector would require enough hydrogen stations to support our highly mobile automotive dependent society.
Conclusion
As the new reality, shaped by the developments of a recovering economy and intensified environmental sustainability initiatives, continues to unfold, we should see utility vehicle manufacturers accelerate the development of innovative and more productive ways to assist customers in getting their jobs done and delivering the outcomes that they desire and value. In the midst of this accelerated change for current and emerging manufacturers, product quality will remain a key performance benchmark, and customer service after the sale will be more important than ever before to maintain the customer’s upward productivity curve. Therefore manufacturer and distributor/dealer channel service support should be weighed heavily with any utility vehicle purchase decision.
The Toro Company will continue to focus on productivity and environmental sustainability requirements as we seek to meet the needs of our customers with our current and future utility vehicle platforms. We recommend that you consider those same two deliverables as key utility vehicle purchasing criteria as you seek better ways to get your job done and achieve the outcomes you desire.
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