Cam Systems says that its Workshop Scheduler integrated diary system has led to the recent 15 per cent rise in bookings at Suffolk’s Treadfirst Tyre & Exhaust Centre. Since using Workshop Scheduler to plan its MOTs and servicing, Mick Shaw, managing director of Treadfirst, says: “we have increased the number of jobs and bookings through more effective planning rather than just filling up a page in the paper diary then stopping.”
The HiQ network has announced the recruitment of Stuart Carr, who has been appointed as a new fast fit manager. Carr comes from IN’n’OUT Services, where he worked as an operations project manager for three years. His immediate goal will be to increase sales opportunities for franchisees in their servicing, mechanical, and repair offerings, says HiQ.
Kwik-Fit Fleet is introducing the Bosch range of braking components at all of its UK centres. The addition of Bosch brake pads and discs to the line-up of products offered by Kwik-Fit Fleet comes at a time when demand for is company car and van service maintenance and repair work at Kwik-Fit centres is reaching record levels, the company notes. Indeed, Kwik-Fit reports that during the first four months of 2010, its fleet vehicle servicing was up 65 per cent and company car and van MoT work up almost 60 per cent on a like for like basis over the same period in 2009.
Cheshire’s Oulton Park was the latest venue for the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship, hosting around 35,000 racing fans. Among those fans were more than 25 of the North West region’s top tyre experts, attending the Dunlop BTCC Masterclass; an exclusive course for technicians run by the same Senior Engineers that service the Dunlop tyres for BTCC stars such as Jason Plato and Matt Neal.
You’re an accomplished all-rounder, aren’t you? An intellectual colossus, football wunderkind unfairly shunned by the talent scouts, a lover par excellence….and an expert DIY mechanic. That’s why you’ve taken to fixing your own car, even though you really haven’t the foggiest about what’s lurking under the bonnet. Don’t worry, mate, you’re hardly alone…According to statistics released by Kwik-Fit, our roads are full of cars that may have been shoddily serviced.
Waste management specialist Cleansing Service Group (CSG), one of the UK waste industry’s fastest growing companies, has been fitting Bandvulc tyres to its fleet “for some months.” CSG engineering manager Mick Arnold commented: “We have been fitting Bandvulc tyres to a number of our vehicles and the ‘BIG D’ tyre is proving to be a good choice, particularly when used on vehicles going to landfill sites. An important bonus is the environmental benefit by fitting retreads rather than newly manufactured tyres.”
ATS Euromaster has merged or closed 80 branches in the past year, as a result of the consultation exercise reported by tyrepress.com in September 2009 (see ‘ATS Euromaster “Reviewing” 80 Branches’ on tyrepress.com). In the time since that article, there has been a shift from the regional organisation towards a segmentation of the organisation of the business into Retail, Comprehensive and Truck, which group operations director Chris Hufflett characterised as giving “more emphasis” to the needs of the customer when he spoke to Tyres & Accessories. An additional element of this increased customer focus is the “significant investment” in mobile service vehicles, he continued, leaving ATS-E able to meet the figure of 10,000 breakdowns every month. And further investment in the ATS-E network is to come in the form of “£6 million rolling investment”, which will mainly go to “stronger locations”, MOT servicing, some location scouting and the continuing process of refurbishing and improving the facilities available in outlets.
Tyre changing and balancing firm Hofmann Megaplan has announced the appointment of two new members of staff. Mark Berryman has joined the company as operations director, looking after all aspects of customer service, including installation management and aftersales. John Baron also joins the team in the position of equipment specialist for the south of England.
A new commercial vehicle dealer programme with Isuzu Commercial Vehicle Truck of America gives Yokohama Tire access to Isuzu truck dealerships across the US. Yokohama will supply its full range of commercial vehicle tyres through participating dealers and provide point of sale information for on-site display.
Nationwide Autocentre has been crowned ‘Customer King’ following a search by Cisco and Real Business magazine to find best customer focused firms of 2010. The Customer Kings competition aims to find the UK’s best businesses for customer engagement. Nationwide Autocentre was named as the best ‘big’ business in the competition’s newly introduced commercial category.
The commercial category was introduced to see if smaller businesses can learn anything from ‘the big boys’ and judges declared it to have provided very valuable benchmark, and that Nationwide Autocentre had “…taught us how to give customer care an MOT.”
Tyremax has expanded its business with the addition of two new sites in Finchley and Chigwell, bringing the total number of sites to three in North and East London. As a result, it will be extending its contract with Cam Systems to introduce the Cameo platform into the new locations.
Improved fleet driver communication and enhanced data information for contract hire and leasing company customers are the two key advantages Kwik-Fit Fleet says will be gained from its new web-enabled Service 24 initiative. The recently installed Service24 software handles and co-ordinates driver bookings for vehicle servicing, maintenance and repair to be carried out either through Kwik-Fit Fleet’s own network or motor manufacturers’ franchises; glass replacement; breakdown assistance and vehicle recovery and vehicle hire for all Kwik-Fit Fleet’s leasing customers.
As a provider of advanced wheel alignment systems to the UK market, Northamptonshire-based company Pro-Align stresses the advantage of cutting edge equipment from the point of view of both service quality and commercial opportunity. Its latest product from US garage equipment manufacturer Hunter – the Hunter CodeLink – fits this bill, both catering for models in the Audi, BMW, Lexus, Chevrolet, Mini, Toyota and Volkswagen ranges and anticipating the increase in popularity of Electronic Stability Control in new cars; a system that will become a requirement in all new cars from 2012.
Regarding braking as one part of the triumvirate of chassis safety, car parts, garage equipment and training provider, CES UK has launched a series of events at educational facilities located close to its branch network across the UK. CES has a “Safety Triangle” logo illustrating this point, with the three ‘s’-es of stopping steering and stability emblazoned on each of the shapes sides. The events, in the words of CES, “will be looking at the safety critical systems within the chassis systems and exploring the results of component failure, duty of care, changes in technology and garages profit opportunities.”
In January this year, online tyre retailer continued its strategy of merging traditional and online marketing methods by delivering promotional material to 20 Tesco Petrol Stations around the UK. According to the e-tailer’s website, the company’ s communications and promotion manager covered over 1000 miles in five days, visiting selected Tesco stores. His objective was to introduce the company to Tesco Staff, while delivering A5 fliers, putting up posters and checking air pump advertising fascias which had been put up the previous week.
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