Goodyear opens new TruckForce hub in Southampton

Goodyear Tyres has opened a new 24-hour commercial support hub for its TruckForce network in Southampton. TruckForce’s network is made up of a combination of Goodyear Dunlop equity-owned hubs and independent service providers, offering crucial truck tyre servicing and breakdown assistance throughout the UK.

With strong road, rail, sea and air travel links, Southampton is a hot-bed of commercial traffic and was therefore seen as “an ideal location for TruckForce to establish a base of operations”. The new hub will service a plethora of major businesses and meet a variety of specialist fleet requirements. For instance, technicians will provide support for hazardous and dangerous goods carriers such as Hoyer and Suttons, critical-time operators such as DPD and vehicle-movers such as ECM and BCA.

Servicing vehicles in the Southampton, Portsmouth, Andover and Salisbury areas, the new operation will open with six vans and technicians, with plans to expand this department in the coming months. By 2019, the service will have extended to also cover Brighton, Bournemouth and Poole.

Chris Suttle, TruckForce Regional Manager, commented: “TruckForce’s success hinges on having the right people and providing the best service and assets for our customers. Our new location in Southampton is an exciting embodiment of the success and growth that we have achieved to date, and we are immensely proud of the journey that we have been on so far. We wish the Hub’s new manager, Andzejs Skavronskis (AJ), all the best and would like to thank him for his efforts so far in its successful launch.”

The opening of the Southampton hub comes after a period of significant success for the TruckForce network, with performance figures showing a record customer response time and job completion time in 2017, saving a cumulative total of 2,169 hours throughout the year.

The hub is the first new TruckForce location since 2006, adding to the group’s 12 existing service hubs throughout the UK and acting as a central location for the approved dealers operating on the South coast. The site is managed by Andzejs Skavronskis who has seven years’ experience as a depot manager for another commercial tyre breakdown service.