Michelin's ONCall service passes 2 million mark

CLEVELAND — Nothing comes full circle quite like a tire. Except, maybe, a tire dealer.

In 1920, an Ohioan named Harold Ziegler performed the first road service tire repair for AAA. A century later, his company — Massillon, Ohio-based Ziegler Tire — ran the 2 millionth service call for Michelin's ONCall Emergency Roadside Service since the program began in 2009.

The service was done in July by an employee from Ziegler's Monroe, Ohio, location, which is just outside of Cincinnati.

"My great-grandfather was the technician who ran the (1920) call with an air pump," John Ziegler, the company's vice president, said. "Things have changed a little bit since then.

"We're certainly happy to be a part of it."

The MCS network — which comprises 36 franchisees with over 437 points of sale — handled more than 243,400 calls in the U.S. and Canada in 2020, Michelin said, noting that service roll times averaged 118 minutes over the past 12 months.

"The ONCall program has been a tremendous success story over the last 10 years," Eric Hagerman, ERS operations manager for Michelin North America, said.

The goal of ONCall is to provide fleet customers with 24/7 roadside breakdown service.

Ziegler Tire has been part of the MCSN since its inception and has seen it become the industry standard, Mr. Ziegler said.

"My dad always said — and I wasn't around for it — but Michelin's breakdown service wasn't very good (years ago)," Mr. Ziegler said. "When they started ONCall, there were a lot of bugs to work out, but each year it's gotten better and better.

"They're far and away the best in the industry right now."

The key, Mr. Ziegler said, is Michelin's high standards. The company expects its service providers to accept 94% of its calls and perform the service in under 100 minutes of roll time. Drivers call one phone number and everything is tracked digitally, from the time the driver is dispatched to his arrival to when he completes the call.

"Some fleets will say, 'Let's find any tire dealer in that area, and they'll find someone to run a call,'" Mr. Ziegler said. "You're at the mercy of the market as far as pricing and roll time.

"We're held to strict standards (by Michelin). Customers like all the information they're getting, and we have goals we have to hit; although we obviously need to do it as safely as we can. We're not telling our guys to hurry up and get a job done on the side of the turnpike. Safety comes first."

Ziegler Tire ran between 800 and 900 service calls across its 25 locations in August alone, Mr. Ziegler said, providing the company with "quite honestly, a nice revenue stream."

The only drawback is finding technicians, something everyone in the industry understands right now.

"Finding service technicians is very difficult right now," Mr. Ziegler said. "You can't just bring in a guy from off the street and the next day say, 'Hey, fire up this service truck, go on the side of the road and change a tire.' There's a method to learning how to do it and how to do it safely."

But, he said, it pays off in the long run.

"People sneer a little and say, 'Why would you ever want to learn to change a tire?' but you can make a damn good living changing a truck tire," Mr. Ziegler said. "It requires a little bit of hard work and not being afraid to get dirty. But if you're willing to put in a good, honest, hard day's work, you can make a damn good living."

Tire Business special projects reporter Bruce Davis contributed to this report.