Fleet Business
New blood has been injected into Goodyear’s North American leadership. John F. “Jack” Winterton has been appointed president of the company’s North American Tire consumer business unit and Phillip Kane has taken over as vice-president of the Goodyear’s North American Tire commercial tyre business. Both appointments, Goodyear comments, are effective immediately and intended to “continue the positive momentum in the company’s North American Tire business.”
FleetMatics, a provider of fleet management solutions for commercial fleet vehicles, has announced that The City Bin Co., based in Dublin, Ireland, has selected FleetMatics to deliver GPS monitoring solutions to improve operational efficiency while reducing costs.
The City Bin Co. was founded with the concept of providing "cheaper, greener and easier" waste management and recycling services. "With 28 vehicles, the reasons for implementing a vehicle tracking system were simple," says City Bin Operations Director Niamh Bray. "I wanted to know where certain trucks were going and be able to plan routes to prevent any overlap."
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Kwik-Fit Fleet says a £600,000 investment in its telecommunications system has resulted in an increase in the number of ‘same day’ jobs being undertaken by the company’s mobile tyre repair and replacement technicians. The introduction of new technology has more than halved waiting time for fleet drivers, the company reports. It also allows Kwik-Fit Fleet to better control the quality of calls, and the company states it will “lead to even greater process improvements designed to improve driver experience over the coming months.”
North Somerset’s Alvis Contracting has fit its four new Stewart silage trailers with Michelin CargoXbib trailer tyres. The manufacturer says the decision to fit dedicated agricultural trailer tyres on the trailers mirrors a policy being adopted across the company’s fleet, with seven 10-year old silage trailers being upgraded with air brakes and a set of CargoXbibs during 2011.
Cam Systems has announced that its third party integration module for the commercial vehicle market – 3PI – is being adopted by All Fleet Services, provider of the Goodyear Dunlop ActionLine. After implementation, the AFS call centre will be able to take an inbound call, issue the SMR job via 3PI directly into Cam’s UniSerV Call Logging module, creating a service record and reducing double handling in log management between AFS and Actionline service providers.
In announcing details of its recently-signed fleet agreement with contract hire and direct rental firm Alltruck, Bridgestone UK comments that securing the deal was not achieved solely on cost. Rather, the combination of a state-of-the-art account system and the durability of its products were the major factors in helping land the contract.
Goodyear has announced the first fleet deal involving its new 275/70R22.5 Marathon LHT II trailer tyre. One of the largest car transporter companies in the UK, ECM Ltd, fit the tyre to one of its vehicles at a 25 November event in Carlisle to mark the deal. ECM Ltd has an existing partnership with TruckForce, Goodyear’s truck tyre service and breakdown assistance support network. The tyre has been specifically introduced to the Goodyear range for ECM, with the product to be made available to the wider market later. Robert Mason, Goodyear’s regional business manager said: “I am delighted that we are able to strengthen the partnership that we have maintained with ECM Ltd over the last eight years.
Worldwide, more than 30,000 service partner workshops now co-operate with online tyre retailer Delticom AG. Reaching this milestone figure is, comments the German-based company, evidence that “the European internet tyre trading market leader remains at the top.” In addition to the aforementioned 30,000 service partners, Delticom now operates 125 online shops in 41 countries, including the British portal mytyres.co.uk, and offers more than 100 tyre brands and at least 25,000 individual types of tyre.
ATS Euromaster reports having won back a sole-supplier agreement with Scotland’s largest independent wine and spirit wholesaler, Wallaces Express, just six months after the account was passed to a local independent tyre dealer. The Irvine-based fleet, which operates 50 cars and 70 commercial vehicles, initially changed suppliers in an effort to trim its fleet operating costs, but the new provider apparently failed to meet its required service standards.
The government must heed the advice of its own MPs and overhaul its fuel duty policy to avoid doing further damage to the industry and the economy, the Freight Transport Association (FTA) has warned. During a four-hour debate in the House of Commons, Chloe Smith, the Economic Under Secretary to the Treasury, heard how high fuel prices have damaged businesses and communities, restricted economic growth, hurt motorists and stoked inflation and unemployment across the country. MPs told how hauliers and businesses in their constituencies have suffered at the hands of the highest rates of fuel duty in the EU and struggled to remain competitive and solvent, citing evidence from the FTA and other organisations.
During a four-hour debate in the House of Commons, Chloe Smith, the Economic Under Secretary to the Treasury, heard how high fuel prices have damaged businesses and communities, restricted economic growth, hurt motorists and stoked inflation and unemployment across the country. MPs told how hauliers and businesses in their constituencies have suffered at the hands of the highest rates of fuel duty in the EU and struggled to remain competitive and solvent, citing evidence from the FTA and other organisations.
National Association of Motor Auctions (NAMA) figures for October show that average values of used cars sold at auction decreased from £4,718 to £4,558, a 4 per cent decrease. Values for fleet cars recorded a 6 per cent decrease. Year-on-year, the average price of cars at auction has increased just 0.1 per cent from £4,554 a year ago to £4,558 this year.
With preparations for the implementation of next year’s tyre labelling laws still very much beginning within the industry, how ready are those in one rung down on the supply ladder in the fleet business? If the latest research is anything to go by, they are some way off the pace for November 2012 implementation of the European rules, with varying levels of understanding of what tyre labels mean. In fact a recent Fleet News survey sponsored by Michelin found that over two-thirds (69%) of the 281 fleet operators who responded are unaware of the forthcoming EU tyre labelling regulations. So will the labelling law make any difference to fleet tyre purchasing?
Leading tea and coffee retailer Ringtons has signed up with Michelin in a deal that will see the manufacturer provide tyres for its 200-vehicle fleet of light commercial vehicles. The Newcastle company had fitted mid-range tyres two years ago in an attempt to reduce costs. Its fleet manager Stephen Killinger says that the cheaper product led to a greater frequency of replacement due to a reduction in tyre life.
Fleets with fewer than 25 cars, vans and trucks apply almost as much control to buying petrol and diesel as those with more than 25 vehicles, according to new research by MIB Data Solutions. The company asked 3003 companies with fewer than 25 vehicles and 616 with more than 25 how they acquired fuel (The results do not total 100 per cent because some use more than one method of purchasing).
Nick Boddington, managing director, said: “The results of this survey are quite surprising. Certainly, we expected a much greater disparity between small and large fleets when it comes to the amount of control they apply to fuel buying but the figures for all the methods of purchasing we investigated are very similar.
Marangoni Retreading Systems has announced a new deal with Bergkvarabuss AB, one of the largest private tourist bus and coach companies in Sweden. The Italian retreader will supply tyres with its BUS-T tread pattern, manufactured using its Ringtread joint-free procured ring technology, to the transport firm, becoming the first retreader to supply Bergkvarabuss. Founded in 1975 as a small taxi and bus business, the fleet has since grown to become the biggest family business in the sector in Sweden.
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