Allied Bakeries sign ATS-E, Michelin for 3 more years

ATS Euromaster has announced that Allied Bakeries’ fleet of 756 trucks will run on Michelin-supplied rubber, managed by ATS-E for another three years. ATS-E revealed that the fleet, which also includes 180 trailers, has carried out confidential development work on tyre pressures, tyre longevity and fuel consumption in recent years with the support of both suppliers.

Allied Bakeries’ national fleet engineer Chris Davies reasons that proactive strategic consultancy and support was an important aspect of the decision to sign up with the manufacturer and service company: “We’re focused on pretty much managing-out downtime and improving management of tyre pressures to ensure our fleet benefits from the best possible fuel consumption and tyre longevity, ATS Euromaster and Michelin have been integral to that process.

“If we want them on-site at 3am weighing each individual axle on outbound vehicles and advising on the precise recommended pressure for the tyres, that’s fine, they’ll be there. All our fleet management team come from a technical background and we expect conversations with suppliers to be at a fairly high level. That’s what we get with both these companies.”

Peter Fairlie, group sales director of ATS Euromaster, adds: “This is a prestige customer and one of the UK’s best-managed fleets. They know precisely what they want, they are very good at tyre management in their own right and they expect a strategic-level supplier to understand that and support their long term goals, not in a tick-box way but flexibly, creatively and proactively.  They challenge us to challenge them. They don’t rest on their laurels and they don’t expect suppliers to do that, either. It’s a terrific account to win in the first place and we were extremely pleased to be reappointed.”

Allied Bakeries makes the Sunblest, Allinson, Burgen, Kingsmill brands among others. It operates from 18 UK locations and makes 51,000 deliveries involving approximately 1.26 million baskets of product to 10,000 customers every seven days. There are two fleets: 110 vehicles (mainly 38 tonne artics) delivering between depots; 646 vehicles ranging from 7.5 tonners to 38 tonne artics delivering to multiples and independents. ATS-E says the Allied Bakeries fleet has high levels of driver training and sophisticated management.

The company charges its depots with ensuring that all vehicle tyre pressures are accurate to within a 10 per cent margin of error and ATS Euromaster technicians support this programme with bi-monthly electronic tyre inspections which assess overall tyre condition. ATS Euromaster and Michelin have also supported programmes relating to tyre rolling resistance and the training of Allied Bakeries’ staff.

The Michelin Four Lives programme (regrooving, then remoulding, then regrooving the remoulds) is used on drive axle and trailer tyres. Allied Bakeries also benefits from ATS Euromaster’s 24/7 roadside rapid response capability and holds regular review meetings at which ATS Euromaster and Michelin staff report on actual performance versus KPIs.