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NEWS EXTRA
Bus Operators Find a Flexible Friend in Bridgestone
that date is Vacu-Lug, one of the top retreaders in the UK.
Now the company has invested in being closer to local customers. “We perceived the need to increase agility in the process, which is why we pursued a partnership with Denholm to open the English centre,” emphasises General Manager of Vipal Europe, Alessandro Campos. Denholm is part of a group of
companies that operates in various segments, including shipping and logistics.
In addition to the facility at Felixstowe, Vipal has three other distribution centres in Europe, located in Spain, Germany and Slovenia. It also has centres in Australia, Mexico, Colombia and three in the United States (Florida, Virginia and California).
Bridgestone believes that its flexible tyre service, combined with consistency of supply, were two underlying reasons behind its successful showing at the Euro Bus Expo 2014, where significant new fleet business was secured.
The company kept its messages simple at the NEC over the three day event, which resonated with a number of bus and coach operators, some of whom will now be embarking on their own journeys with the brand. Instead of talking solely about tyres, Bridgestone majored on its bespoke, personal service where its operations managers work as closely as possible with each and every fleet. Bridgestone also talked about its holistic maintenance and support programmes, including tyre pressure checks, provision of retread products and simplicity of invoicing.
Bridgestone’s fleet operations manager Matt Millington said that the Euro Bus Expo presence could mark the beginning of an exciting new chapter for the bus and coach team. He said: “We were keen to communicate two key messages, both of which we feel separate us from many of our competitors. Firstly, we are flexible. Fleets can opt for a full-fit package where we physically remove then re-fit the wheel assemblies to our customer’s vehicles. Alternatively we can offer an option where we solely
supply the built up assemblies to our customers, or we also boast a ‘hub and spoke’ service where we don’t offer a resident tyre technician on our customer’s premises but run the assemblies out of a central operations service building.”
The flexibility continues from a financial perspective as the purchase of the existing asset at contract start remains an option and various methods of invoicing are available. We feel “This level of flexibility is hugely important when other manufacturers try to push operators down one particular route. “Secondly, our operations managers are very hands-on and understand the importance of creating close working relationships which last. They are on site every single month and they pride themselves on knowing the condition of each and every single tyre.”
Millington says that the Euro Bus Expo showing is expected to help Bridgestone in its plans to gain a bigger market share in 2015.
“We are ready to go again,” he said. “We have some targets in mind and we are certainly confident that our presence here will allow us to hit them. We want to add a minimum of 2,000 extra vehicles to our contract portfolio in 2015 and from the conversations we have had, there is certainly no reason why we can’t achieve this.”
TIP Trailer Services has extended its existing truck tyre contract with Goodyear until the end of 2016, when the two companies will celebrate 10 years of working together.
TIP Trailer Services, with more than 50,000 vehicles, is one of Europe's
leading equipment services providers, specialising in the leasing and rental of trailers, tankers and other equipment. The contract, which covers the supply, service and management of tyres for TIP Trailer Services commenced in 2006.
TIP Trailer Services Extends Tyre Contract with Goodyear
RMA Honour Jack Crangle
The Retread Manufacturers Association in the UK honoured Jack Crangle, the Managing Director of Wem, Shropshire based retreader Kingpin, at the recent NTDA Annual dinner in Manchester with a lifetime achievement award.
Pictured with Crangle, who is celebrating sixty years in the retreading industry this year, are RMA Board members David Gray and Mike Carter, Kingpin Director Debbie Cartwright (Crangle’s daughter) and RMA Director Alan Bithell.
Vipal Opens UK Distribution Centre
Brazilian tread rubber manufacturer Vipal have announced the opening of a new distribution centre in the UK. Located in Felixstowe, home to the largest container port in the United Kingdom, the distribution centre measures 2,000 m2 in size and the has capacity to store up to 500 tonnes of products. The opening of the new distribution centre seeks
to cater to the whole of the UK as well as the Republic of Ireland and was scheduled to open in November. Vipal intends to increase its market share in the region, striving for growth of up to 8%.
Among the top five markets on the European continent, the United Kingdom has been served by Vipal since 2007. A major customer since
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