Goodyear expanding Smart Fleet program, looking to further improve roll time

TORONTO, Ont. — Goodyear introduced its Smart Fleet program to the Canadian market last spring and is now looking to expand the program and continuously engage its members.

The program is aimed at offering national account-type benefits to small fleets and owner/operators, including published pricing on tires and tire-related services, waiving of dispatch fees on road service calls and educational tools. Traditionally these benefits have only been available to large fleets, according to Jose Martinez, architect of the Smart Fleet program with Goodyear.

In an interview with Trucknews.com, Martinez said Smart Fleet memberhip is completely free. In order to entice new members to join, Goodyear is offering an introductory deal of $25 off per tire on orders of up to 10 tires, for a savings of up to $250.

However, with the program launched at Expocam in April, Martinez said the focus is now shifting from signing up new members, to continuously engaging them and offering more benefits.

“We were concentrating on signing up new members, but we have shifted the emphasis and now we want not only to sign up members, but to make them active in the program,” Martinez said.

So far, the greatest benefit to members has been access to published prices across the entire country. So an owner/operator that needs to replace a tire far from home in some remote part of Canada won’t pay more for the tire and service just because of their location.

“What happens with the program is the owner/operator becomes a national account of Goodyear, so they are dealing directly with Goodyear, so therefore the dealer is helping us deliver the tires but the business relationship and the billing – everything happens directly between Goodyear and the owner/operator,” Martinez explained.

Smart Fleet members access this information through a Web portal. Most members so far have one to five trucks, Martinez said, but fleets with up to 30 trucks are free to join. Larger fleets than that are likely already part of a national account program, Martinez noted.

Goodyear is also working to reduce roll time (the time it takes to get customers back on the road following a service call). The average across its network is just over two hours, but Martinez said the company is working to integrate its customer-based road service app and the service provider’s SmartTech app in an effort to further reduce roll time.

When this happens, probably early next year, customers will be able to see in real-time how their call is progressing. They’ll be able to see via the app when the ticket has been approved, when the replacement tire has been loaded onto the truck, when the service truck has been deployed, when it’s scheduled to arrive, etc.

“We think we’ll be able to reduce our roll time significantly,” Martinez said.

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James Menzies is editorial director of Today's Trucking and TruckNews.com. He has been covering the Canadian trucking industry for more than 24 years and holds a CDL. Reach him at james@newcom.ca or follow him on Twitter at @JamesMenzies.


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