Page 10 - CTB N17 - 2017-01

NEWS
ATS Euromaster Opens New Training and Service Centre
Bridgestone’s Licence to
Thrill for Commercial Tyre
CommercialTyre
Management
and Fleet Business
ATS Euromaster has opened its latest centre at Rupert Street, Birmingham, that will provide truck servicing, as well as acting as a training centre for new expert technicians. An upgrade to the existing Aston Truck service centre, ATS Euromaster has invested around £250,000 in a move to new premises.
As well as providing truck services both at the centre and off-site via mobile service vans, the centre will also act as ATS Euromaster’s academy for trainee technicians, who will reap the benefits of the increased capacity and state-of-art equipment – all within half a mile of ATS Euromaster’s head office in Aston. Rachel McMullen, Group Operations Director – Comprehensive, ATS Euromaster, says: “The upgraded
Aston Truck service centre means we will continue to provide the very highest standards of service, right on our own doorstep. In addition to serving numerous truck customers in the haulage hotbed of the Midlands, we can train the next generation of expert technicians on the full range of ATS Euromaster services in one convenient location.”
Located on a small industrial park, the Aston Truck service centre has convenient access to the M5, M6 and M42, as well as the centre of Britain’s second city. With storage capacity for more than 500 truck tyres and 700 car/van tyres, the centre will ensure fleet operators in the West Midlands always have access to the right tyres and the latest maintenance services.
Technicians
Bridgestone is promising to raise standards, celebrate excellence and create a sense of uniformity in the commercial tyre industry, after becoming the first major manufacturer to offer a
new licence for
technicians to benefit
from.
Bridgestone is the first to
provide the Society of
Operations Engineers’
(SOE) Commercial Tyre Technician Licence to
employees of fleets across
the UK. The licence,
featuring three practical assessments and an
online test, aims to
regulate the industry and
provide a sense of ‘best
practice’ with an
approved standard that
everyone can aspire to
achieve.
At present, it is just
beginning to be rolled
out and Bridgestone has
become the first premium
tyre manufacturer to put
its name to it, with UK development trainers Phil
Thirsk and Paul Turner
passing their own rigorous tests in October to become qualified assessors.
The licence will be valid for five years, with tyre technicians having to pass practical assessments covering: Removing and refitting a wheel to a commercial vehicle in
Phil and Paul assessed their first two technicians at TyreForce in Manchester last week, whose group training manager Helen Allera expressed her thoughts on the
BKT Awarded “Port Tyre Manufacturer of the Year” at the Terminal Operator Excellence Awards
BKT collecting the award at the Terminal Operator Excellence Awards 2016 in Dubai
BKT supplies port application tyres to most of the major terminal operators in the Middle East region. The performance of the BKT tyres was judged to be among the best, both in terms of hourly costs and total service hours. As a pioneer in the field of OTR radials in India, BKT has also successfully launched its new range of radial port tyres including the Portmax PM 90 for reach stackers, Portmax PM 93 for straddle carriers and Liftmax LM 81 for forklifts.
In addition, BKT will be shortly launching a radial tyre range for terminal tractor applications.
The Port Tyre Manufacturer of the year trophy
Bridgestone are now offering a new licence for UK Fleet technicians
licence. She said: “This licence creates traceability, accountability and from our point of view, a blue riband standard that we can use when pitching for work and communicating with our customers. It can help us secure new business, such is the level we regard it.”
The licence involves three practical tests and an online test
At the recently concluded Terminal Operator Excellence Awards 2016 in Dubai, Balkrishna Industries Ltd (BKT) was awarded the title of “Port Tyre Manufacturer of the Year” for its range of tyres for port and terminal cargo handling equipment.
The award was based on various parameters including technological innovation, product performance, durability, sustainable manufacturing and ease of recycling.
The Terminal Operator team visited BKT’s new production site at Bhuj and rated the plant as the best, with a high level of process automation and strict adherence to process control.
accordance with the vehicle manufacturers recommendations, de-mounting and mounting a tubeless truck tyre to a wheel and repairing a truck tyre to British Standards and regrooving a truck tyre to manufacturers’ specific recommendations.
This is then followed by an online test through a web portal and upon passing, the technician will receive their licence for five years.
The licence supplements Bridgestone’s existing aw training programmes, which won the NTDA’s Industr y Staff Training and Development award last year. It is hoped that, like Bridgestone’s REACT Roadside Tyre Technician Training course, the licence will be adopted by the NTDA and enforced across the industry as a best practice qualification to adhere to.
10 Commercial Tyre Business