4 Features To Look For In Your 24/7 Fleet Roadside Service Provider
Whenever one of the trucks in your fleet is stranded on the side of the road, your loads aren't being delivered according to schedule. Reducing downtime and keeping your trucks moving is an important part of ensuring smooth logistical operations and keeping revenue flowing. One way you can accomplish this is to protect your trucks with a 24/7 fleet roadside service, who will send emergency assistance at any time of the day to any truck in your fleet that breaks down.
However, not all commercial roadside assistance services are equal. In order to find the most effective one for your fleet, look for the following four features.
1. Wide Tire Availability
The most important service that 24/7 fleet roadside companies perform is tire swapping. Tire blow-outs are inevitable for semi-trucks. The weight of a semi-truck trailer will eventually cause treads to rip off the tires, resulting in one of your operators becoming stranded on the side of the road.
Every location that the 24/7 fleet roadside service dispatches from needs to be well-stocked with semi-truck tires, allowing them to quickly locate your stranded truck and swap the blown-out tire for a new one. Your business can't afford any time lost searching for the correct replacement.
2. Incident Reporting
Some roadside incidents are out of operator control, such as a blown-out tire or a battery suddenly dying. However, other incidents are typically due to operator error, such as running out of gas or being locked out of the truck.
24/7 fleet roadside services can get your operators back on the road in all of these cases, but it's important that they log the incident and the driver that experienced it. Having an incident log allows you to spot drivers who keep becoming stranded due to operator error, which allows you to either retrain them or hire a new driver.
3. Driver GPS Tracking
Relying on manual directions can be tricky when one of your drivers is stranded on the highway in the middle of the night. If your driver didn't notice which mile marker they last passed by, it may take a while for the emergency assistance to find them. That's why it's important for a fleet roadside service to have a smartphone app that allows them to track the GPS on a driver's smartphone. Knowing the exact location of the stranded truck allows them to locate the truck and get it back on the road quicker.
4. Roadside Mechanical Service
Towing a semi-truck should be avoided at all costs. In addition to being expensive, it also quickly turns into a logistics nightmare. You'll have to send another truck to recover the load while the broken-down truck is undergoing repairs, which results in delayed deliveries across your entire fleet.
In order to prevent the need for a tow, it's important for your roadside service to provide mobile mechanical repairs. When repairs can be made at the roadside, the truck can get back on the road without causing complicated logistics issues.
If you're not currently covered by 24/7 fleet roadside assistance or aren't happy with your current provider, contact a company that provides all of the services above. When you protect your fleet with emergency assistance, you'll reduce operator downtime and maximize the chance that your loads will always be delivered according to schedule.