Continental 360° Fleet Services Launched in the UK
On 14 September Continental Tyres Ltd gave Conti 360° Fleet Services its official UK launch. Sharp eyed Tyres & Accessories readers will have spotted news of the European launch of this programme on tyrepress.com back in February as well as in March’s magazine. Seven months later, the UK launch revealed further details of how this will be rolled out across the UK and Europe and how the British ContiNetwork model gave the impetus for what is now know as the Conti 360° Network.
Dates first. Despite being initially announced as operational as early as February this year, the official launch of Conti 360° Fleet Services was – as we can see in mid-September, however the big UK switch-on in is scheduled for October. The Republic of Ireland will join the ranks of the programme with it own independent dealer network – a first for Continental Eire – being launched in November.
Conti’s latest move towards the truck and bus tyre market comes in response to an observable increase in the number of pan-European fleets operating across the continent and an increase in the flow of goods from east to west. As a result, the company now offers a modular package covering all tyre-related services for long-distance transport operators, with the aim of reducing operating costs and improving cost controls. Tyres can still be bought in the traditional way through the newly rebadged Conti360° Network (previously ContiNetwork) in the UK and the expanding pan-European dealer network or on a fixed-cost contract that runs right up to a tyre’s scheduled replacement.
The revamped Conti360° network starts with roughly 2500 accredited partners, which Continental says have been carefully selected based on a quality not quantity philosophy. The network is already in eight key European markets (including the UK and Germany), with further growth into the rest of Europe (namely Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Scandinavia and of course Ireland) throughout the coming year.
So what is Continental’s 360° Fleet Services? The company describes its latest offering to the commercial vehicle tyre business as “an array of products and services specifically designed for European road transport customers, offering tailored solutions to meet the changing requirements of international freight transport.” There are five spokes to Continental’s 360° Fleet Services’ wheel: ContiFitmentService, ContiFleetCheck, ContiBreakdownService, ContiCasingManagement and ContiFleetReporting.
Speaking at a press briefing in London, Continental UK commercial vehicle tyre director, Arthur Gregg credited the British ContiNetwork as the only truly independent dealer network in the UK when he introduced Conti 360° Fleet Services, which company representatives say was inspired by the forward-looking UK market.
According to the company, ContiFleetCheck forms part of Conti 360° Fleet Services and delivers a “detailed summary on the state of commercial vehicle tyres from tread depth, total mileage, tyre pressures and damage and wear profiles.” Other services on offer include breakdown service and fleet checks.
Each of the “spokes” are somewhat self-explanatory in function, but ContiBreakdownService demonstrates some innovation inasmuch as it is provided by a new European Tyre Management Centre via international partner ADAC TruckService, Europe’s largest mobility service provider. And what this means is that Conti 360° customers can explain their needs in their mother tongue to a central contact person, regardless of where their vehicle is currently located in Europe.
During the whole period the tyre is used, the operator can have all tyre-related data and condition reports analysed by Conti experts as part of the FleetManagementReport. If required, Conti 360° Fleet Services can provide all cost and usage data for the truck tyres as a fleet cost calculation.
At the end of the tyre’s life, customers can fall back on Continental’s professional casing service called ContiCasingManagement, an important step in Continental’s ContiLifeCycle cradle-to-grave package. This covers everything from the collection of used tyres; casing inspection; casing acceptance (depending on their condition), re-use of the casing for ContiRe, and then disposal of non-retreadable casings.
Something else that is relatively unique to Conti’s way of operating is its complete transparency regarding fitment and service costs, which are published upfront across Europe.
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