NASHVILLE—After expanding its Truckwise commercial service network in the past year to nearly 450 locations throughout the U.S., Goodyear is ready to launch the program in Canada this year. Establishing Truckwise nationwide—and with dealer locations sufficiently close to one another—is an important development, since 24-hour road service is a key element to the program, said Al Cohn, Goodyear's marketing manager, commercial systems engineering.
``The goal is to have a stranded truck up and running within two hours,'' Mr. Cohn said.
To make this program effective, Goodyear has tied its entire Goodyear commercial service network—some 1,680 locations across the U.S. and Canada—into the breakdown service response system.
Any trucker dialing 1-888-trk-wise (888-875-9473) will be patched through to the nearest dealer offering 24-hour service, once the trucker identifies his position via the Truckwise telephone menu.
The company did not detail exactly when or how quickly it will roll out Truckwise across Canada.
To enable dealers to help their fleet customers get a better handle on tire costs, Goodyear has developed what it's calling ``Tire Vehicle Tracking System'' (TVTRACK). This integrated database program allows the dealer to track not only specific tire performance but also to link these data to vehicle parameters to determine whether there might be a tire-vehicle interaction that is either detrimental or beneficial to tire performance.
Dealers will be able to use TVTRACK more effectively in the future once Goodyear rolls out ``Palm Pilot'' hand-held computer data entry devices throughout 1999.
These tools allow a dealer's field rep to record the desired tire parameters directly into an electronic database, which then can be downloaded into the dealer's main computer back at the dealership. That saves considerable duplication of effort, Mr. Cohn said.