As the country emerges from the Covid-19 pandemic, Tructyre’s Leadership Team update us on the challenges the business has faced over the last couple of years, and how it has remained focused on its development plans despite continually adapting ways of working to ensure continuity of service 24/7, 365 days of the year.
Managing Director, Nick Harley, says “Despite national, and subsequent regional lockdowns, we remained committed to providing the same quality tyre services to the HV industry who, almost without exception, continued working throughout the pandemic. In fact, the haulage industry was more important than ever in delivering essential medical supplies, fresh produce, groceries, home shopping and of course, who could forget, toilet rolls!
“Whilst Tructyre has a Business Continuity Plan for each area of the business so we can respond to unplanned incidents such as fire, flood, IT failure, power outages, etc, no-one could have predicted a pandemic on the scale of Covid-19.
“During the first lockdown we continued with our plans to set up our new Customer Experience Centre (CEC) in Gateshead, and even managed to train new recruits face-to-face by implementing rigorous health and safety measures in a specially designed Covid-safe training centre. We had challenges in sourcing additional staff during subsequent Covid-19 lockdowns, but we are seeing a big improvement since the start of 2022. The CEC handles calls from customers across Britain, scheduling inspection work with our depots, emergency call-outs, resolving queries, and processing jobs and invoices.”
Regardless of these challenges Tructyre has continued with its ongoing development plans, just recently rolling out a significant new Warehouse Management System. Tructyre is the first national tyre service provider to launch a full tyre management system which provides end to end visibility from inception to end of life.
Iain Hayes, Operations Director told us “The new Warehouse Management System (WMS) is a real game changer for Tructyre and will have a massive impact on managing tyre stock within our warehouses, depots, technician’s vans, and delivery trucks.
“The WMS will enable faster and more accurate allocation of jobs because the Customer Experience Centre can check tyre stock in real time and allocate new, or customer’s own part-worn, tyres directly to the technician who is assigned to the job.”
Iain continues, “In recent years we’ve seen a general shortage of commercial tyre technicians with good HV experience, and it’s important to give inexperienced applicants the opportunity change their career, join Tructyre and learn new skills. That’s why Tructyre have introduced their own Technicians Induction Program to attract new talent and train them to the highest standards. We’ve streamlined the process for job applications through a new dedicated Careers Portal. Applicants can search for opportunities, apply directly online, and can also register their details to receive future alerts.”
Fleet operators can benefit from a comprehensive new service package from Tructyre, which focuses on pro-active tyre maintenance and prolonging the life span of the asset.
Richard Martin, Commercial Director, gave us more details: “We’ve introduced the new Mastercare+ pro-active service package to give fleet operators peace of mind for their tyres. We recognise that tyre prices and fuel costs are increasing significantly for operators, and we have developed a package designed to manage tyre maintenance, aid decision making and ensure compliance. Through regular tyre inspections and pro-active maintenance, we can catch the precise time to deploy life-extending services and prolong the life span of the tyre.
“Our operations team have witnessed an increase in demand for emergency call-outs which can often be attributed to lack of regular tyre checks and maintenance. It certainly highlights the benefits of having a pro-active maintenance regime in place, and operators can reduce vehicle downtime and prevent mission failure.”
Richard concludes “After prolonged telephone and video contact only, the commercial team are finally able to resume field visits, so they are keen to meet customers face to face and discuss the new service offer. We also have some new Account Managers in the team and I know they are keen to get around customers and introduce themselves.”
Having been recruited and onboarded during the first lockdown, the team at Tructyre’s Customer Experience Centre in Gateshead continued to provide a 24-hour call response service, despite staff shortages due to Covid-19.
Sarah Rowe, Head of the Customer Experience Centre (CEC), told us “Tructyre’s objective is to deliver a consistent level of telephone service across every day of the week, any time of the day, and that’s why we have developed a multi-skilled team. Providing a 24/7 service means we need sufficient people in the right place at the right time to provide the best possible service. We have brought in additional resource planning expertise and tools which are helping us to monitor demand levels more closely. We have invested in an upgraded telephone system which provides improved capabilities and supports performance monitoring.
“We are seeing a real improvement in our call response rates. There is a significant improvement in overall calls answered, and the speed in which we answering those calls has improved even further.
“In addition, the new Warehouse Management System will enable the CEC to invoice jobs in a more timely and accurate manner, as the tyre stock is scanned directly into the job at the time of completion, which saves manually validating and building jobs for invoicing.”
Tructyre are committed to treating the fleet with care and providing a consistently high level of service quality, and that’s endorsed by their certifications and accreditations.
Head of Health & Safety and Quality, Antonia Lamb, says “We believe that doing things safely and doing things right are inextricably intertwined. Which is why Tructyre has stringent safety policies and Life Saving Rules designed to protect our team, our customers’ assets, drivers, other road users, and anybody else close to our work area.
“This is endorsed by Safe Contractor approval and our recently renewed ISO 45001 certification, which demonstrates that Tructyre is committed to improving employee safety, reducing risks in the workplace and creating a safer working environment.” Antonia continues “We operate to ISO 9001 quality certification which was also recently renewed after a rigorous independent quality audit of our processes and continuous improvement. Equally important is our ISO 14001 certification, which demonstrates that we manage our environmental responsibilities in a systematic manner.
“Operating safely during the pandemic was recognised by RoSPA when we received a RoSPA Gold Award for the second consecutive year. The RoSPA Awards scheme is the longest running of its kind in the UK and is one of the most sought-after achievement awards for health and safety worldwide. Retaining the Gold standard demonstrates Tructyre’s commitment to Health & Safety Management and our continually improving safety performance.”
When you have the right team in place, you know you can find a solution, whatever the challenge.
Nick Harley concludes: “Collaboration and teamwork is high throughout the entire business. We’ve seen the commitment and dedication across the business during the pandemic lockdowns, and we are building on this as we continue with our development plans during these unprecedented times.”
