Fleet Business
Maxxis reports that it is working hard to synergise its sponsorship and advertising links with Premier League football clubs and its major fleet business customers, treating the latter to VIP hospitality with the former. Four Maxxis customers enjoyed a Yossi Benayoun hat-trick – his third in two years – courtesy of the manufacturer, when Liverpool beat Burnley 4-0 at Anfield on 12 September.
Bridgestone UK has announced that it has renewed its supply deal with NR Evans Distribution, one of the UK’s largest temperature-controlled commercial vehicle fleets. The manufacturer will provide tyres for the company’s 300-plus vehicles and trailers, helping it deliver more than £500 million-worth of chilled products each year.
The police are always the first port of call for those in need of help securing personal safety, but they can only come to the aid of the needy if they themselves have taken the proper precautions. One of the prerequisites for road safety is a tyre up to the job of keeping the car where it should be – even when higher demands than your average drive are made of it. That is why Goodyear, in the run up to October’s tyre safety month, is talking about the fitment of its new tyre, the EfficientGrip to Bedfordshire police, Hertfordshire police and Thames Valley’s police fleet vehicles.
20 per cent of tyres fitted to major leasing fleet vehicles are being replaced early due to avoidable tyre damage. According to figures published by ATS Euromaster following a review of the tyre replacement cycle across 100,000 lease vehicles, the average remaining tread on tyres removed through damage is 4.8mm. With 1mm of tread equivalent to approximately 4,000 miles, these damaged tyres are achieving less than half their potential life. Across a sample fleet of 25,000 vehicles, this damage is costing over £440,000 each year in wasted mileage potential.
Bridgestone UK Ltd has extended its tyre supply agreement with AAH Pharmaceuticals who. Bridgestone/Truck Point have been supplying tyres and tyre service management to AAH since 2006. With 3,800 employees at 20 locations and making over 100,000 deliveries a week, AAH operates over 1,100 commercial vehicles.
The Bandvulc Group has entered the new tyre market by becoming the leading stockist of the Fulda range of commercial tyres in the UK. Covering sizes from 17.5 to 22.5-inch, Bandvulc will wholesale and distribute the Fulda brand alongside its own products and the recently agreed small order Goodyear/Dunlop arrangements.
There is a new message coming from Goodyear Dunlop regarding its European retread brand and product strategy. The retreaded truck tyre business is now clearly seen as an integral part of the group’s new truck tyre business, and it is thus focusing directly on large and small fleets across the whole of Europe, serviced by a professional dealer network. As part of what is called “Goodyear Retread Technology”, the American Corporations’ European subsidiary will now focus more on the complete concept of offering a cradle to grave philosophy. This concept starts with the development of a new tyre with a high focus on fuel saving, mileage and reliability – in other words, using the company’s “MaxTechnology”. Consequently the usage of special compounds, new designs and new casing construction will allow multiple retreading and offer the lowest cost to the customer, points out Danny Van Essche, retread manager at Goodyear Dunlop Tires Europe.
Have tyre related issues? Go ‘ask the Michelin Man’….Commercial vehicle operators with smaller fleets (up to 15 vehicles, to be precise) can now do just that following the launch of a new Michelin initiative on April 22. The service, named ‘Ask the Michelin Man’, encourages fleet owners, transport managers and owner-drivers to contact the manufacturer with any tyre related issues they may have.
“Smaller fleets have been telling us they would like greater access to technical assistance and advice on how to improve their tyre performance,” says Martin Covington, head of Truck and Earthmover Marketing at Michelin’s UK headquarters in Stoke-on-Trent. “Taking simple steps, such as fitting lower rolling resistance tyres, adjusting pressures or regrooving can have a significant impact on your bottom line, whether you run a single tractor unit and trailer or a fleet of 10 rigids. Through ‘Ask the Michelin Man’ we are making our tyre expertise more easily available to the smaller fleet market, by both helping with specific technical issues and teaching best practice.”
Kwik-Fit Fleet may soon be adding SMART (Small to Medium Area Repair Technology) repairs to its service offering. The leading fast fit company recently embarked on a trial offering of the service at six locations. It is reportedly the first time that a fast-fit company has moved into offering SMART repairs.
The service will be offered on a menu-driven pricing policy, which means repairs are cheaper than using a traditional bodyshop, at centres in Edinburgh, Birmingham, St Helens, Telford and Slough with a mobile service available in London. Prices start at £45 for paintless dent removal on dents less than 75mm wide, for scuffs, chips and scratches less than 200mm wide and for repairs to holes less than 50mm and scratches less than 150mm wide on trim, velour and leather. Multi-repair discounts are also available.
Devon-based Gregory Distribution Ltd, which operates over 450 trucks and 750 trailers, has renewed its agreement with ATS Euromaster to fit Michelin tyres across its fleet. The deal, valued at approximately £1 million per year, continues a business relationship dating back to the early 90s and marks one of the company’s largest independent customers. As part of the contract, a full time resident ATS Euromaster technician is based at each of Gregory’s main depots in North Tawton and Cullompton, which are together responsible for servicing tyres on over half of the fleet.
The contract sees ATS Euromaster fit Michelin rubber, with each tyre designed to follow Michelin’s Four Lives policy, which involves regrooving and remixing tyres to deliver maximum performance and economy. Once the regrooved Remix tyre has reached the end of its fourth life, it is sent back to Michelin’s factory in Stoke-on-Trent where it is remoulded into an Encore tyre – enabling customers to benefit from a fifth life from the original Michelin casing. The Encore tyres are fitted to drive axles in the company’s milk collection fleet, which operate on farm tracks where there is a greater risk of damage.
Kwik-Fit has beaten a string of companies responsible for delivering a range of solutions to Britain’s multi-billion pound fleet industry to be named Fleet Supplier of the Year by Fleet News. While Kwik-Fit Fleet has been a regular winner of the Best Fast-Fit Company title at the annual awards ceremony, which for more than two decades has been hosted by the fleet industry weekly newspaper, this is the first time that the company has beaten off competition from other sectors – including the likes of AA Business Services and RAC Fleet – to win the top supplier accolade.
The Fleet Supplier of the Year Award is designed to identify the organisation which has gone the extra mile in providing exceptional service to fleet customers and has ‘stand out’ service levels, products and staff and a commitment to providing the best products or services. The award was presented at a ceremony at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel on March 18 and follows Kwik-Fit Fleet being named the nation’s top fast-fit company for an impressive 16 years in succession in the annual BusinessCar Awards announced earlier this year.
Pressure Systems International, along with Wirth Financial and Velociti, is offering a new “stimulus package” program for the trucking industry during the Technology & Maintenance Council’s annual meeting and transportation technology exhibition in Orlando, Florida. The MTIS Stimulus Package is a turn-key, buy four get one free retrofit program that will allow fleets to purchase four retrofit kits, including installation, directly from Velociti, for any axle combination and have an immediate 20 per cent savings on the cost of the MTIS by PSI product. Velociti will perform kit installations at fleet locations.(Tire Review/Akron)
Tyreforce (North West) Ltd recently took ownership of three new tyre service locations in the North West, with the company’s Southport store becoming the 500th Tyre Store to be enrolled in the Infleet network.
Tyreforce managing director Martin Burrows commented: “We are already a close working partner of Infleet carrying out specialised tyre service work for the RAC Patrol Vans and providing RAC’s fleet customers with Roadside Breakdown and Tyre Maintenance programmes. We are delighted to be able to register Southport and our other two new HiQ Stores in Preston & Manchester with Infleet.”
The Infleet call centre is managed by the RAC and it’s commercial division (RAC Commercial Vehicle Assistance) to provide assistance for its members and its corporate customers. RAC has an unrivalled reputation as one of the UK’s most progressive motoring organisations and Infleet MD Bill Hall says “[RAC] is the ideal partner to help us handle the additional complications of breakdowns and accidents.”
Kwik-Fit Fleet’s association with the Leasedrive Velo Group continues with the signing of a new three-year contract to provide a range of fast fit services to the vehicle management group. The independent fast fit operator has maintained a relationship with the company since the days before Leasedrive and Velo merged in 2007, and this latest contract replaces the initial 12-month agreement signed following the merger.
Michelin UK says specialist chilled food distributor FreshLinc is expecting to see a dramatic increase in tyre life and fewer tyre-related breakdowns following a company-wide switch to its tyres and the commencement of a pence per kilometre (PPK) contract. The new agreement sees the Lincolnshire based operator fit a range of Michelin ‘E’ segment regional tyres, with XZE2+ being fitted to the 140 DAF and Scania maximum weight tractor units and new XTE2 and XTE3 tyres across the 160-strong trailer parc as wear dictates. The nature of the PPK structure, comments Michelin, also allows FreshLinc to own the tyres, without the up-front cost of outright purchase.
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