MUSCATINE, IOWA (Aug. 8, 2002)—Bandag Inc. has signed an agreement to manage the tire program of West Side Transport, a Cedar Rapids, Iowa-based truckload carrier with a fleet of 550 tractors and 1,500 trailers.
The agreement, which took effect Aug. 1, calls for Bandag's Tire Management Solutions Inc. unit to take over West Side's tire program, including maintenance of all of the carrier's tires and wheel positions.
In having Bandag handle its tire program, West Side aims to improve vehicle readiness and fleet uptime while reducing tire-related costs. Under the program, Bandag – either through its own field personnel, employees of affiliated dealers, or in some cases its own Tire Distribution Systems locations — will inspect trailers at West Side's drop yards around the U.S. at least once every 30 days. The inspections will include tires, wheels and other trailer equipment conditions.
“The only thing we have to offer that enables us to generate more sales is better on-time delivery, so that's our No. 1 goal every single day,” said Don Vogt, chairman, president and CEO of West Side Transport. “Attaining our goal requires quality people, superior communication throughout our system, and reliable equipment. Bandag has offered us a way to take equipment reliability up another notch, and that's bound to benefit our customers.”
West Side's operations include regional, team, long haul, dedicated and logistics services. The carrier has terminals in Cedar Rapids, Chicago and Denton, Texas.
Roadway Express, one of the nation's leading LTL carriers, has used Tire Management Services for its tire program since 1999.
“With our tire management outsourcing services we utilize quite a bit of technology,” said Janet Sichterman, Bandag vice president, North America fleet sales. “Our proprietary software for managing and tracking tire asset inventory comes into play from the get-go.”
Ms. Sichterman said Bandag retreading plays a key role in improving vehicle reliability, especially through the use of the company's shearographic tire inspection technology and application-specific products.
As the program with West Side Transport gets under way, Bandag also will deploy Bandag Fleet Analyzer, which is a suite of software applications programmed into hand-held computers that Bandag dealer technicians use for collecting data on trailer inspections, tire and wheel conditions and out-of-service tires. Bandag's emergency tire assistance service (ETA) also will be used by West Side to minimize enroute downtime.