Wherever possible, always take advantage of local knowledge when creating emergency plans for your tire dealership or service shop. Bosses may not be as informed as they think they are.
Casual staff meetings may provide neighborhood knowledge that would be invaluable during a blizzard, flood or tornado. Usually, employees cheerfully cooperate because they appreciate that their insider information benefits themselves and co-workers alike. (Involving employees in this research — as well as the resulting decisions — boosts morale and loyalty.)
These safety-focused meetings may reveal a myriad of tips. For example, some employees may be part-time police officers or emergency medical technicians. They may recommend local contacts bosses should know in the event of dangerous weather.
Some workers have accumulated exceptional knowledge from their participation in neighborhood civic organizations or local government. For instance, they may know the location of tornado shelters unknown to fellow employees.
Or, they may know unofficial but effective shelters such as the basement of a nearby office building or fire station. These sites may be particularly valuable because each one is just a several-minute walk from the dealership or shop.
An auto service facility may be vulnerable to flooding. When appropriate, the staff prefers to move customers' and employees' vehicle to higher ground — hopefully to a convenient site.
Readers may or may not realize that locating temporary parking spots in some towns is like searching for hen's teeth. However, employees who grew up there may know potential places to park vehicles until customers can retrieve them.
Saving a car from flood waters is a gesture that most motorists appreciate and will remember for years to come. On the other hand, the disappointed owner of a flooded vehicle may bad mouth your business unfairly.
Employees' neighborhood knowledge may save a service facility time and trouble in other, unexpected ways. For example, imagine that the town's main street runs under an interstate highway — downhill from your dealership.
During rainy season, this underpass floods very easily. For one thing, experience has shown that your tow truck usually cannot ford this flooded underpass. A tow truck stalled in flood waters is a potentially costly — not to mention embarrassing — mistake.
Motorists unfamiliar with the flooded underpass often misjudge the depth of the water and stall their vehicles in it. But well-informed employees at your business politely refuse to tow from that site due to a genuine concern about stranding the tow truck in those flood waters.
Next, traffic usually backs up on both sides of the flooded underpass as frustrated motorists try to turn around and find an alternative route. Snarled traffic may cause canceled appointments because customers cannot reach your dealership or reach it on time.
Vendors and suppliers trying to deliver the parts required to fix vehicles also may struggle to reach your business. No parts means canceled repair jobs, skewed schedules and disappointed — perhaps angry — customers.
A localized snafu such as the flooded underpass may portend additional headaches. For example, experience indicates that by the time the underpass has flooded, other key roads in the area also are impassable.
Technicians who need to perform thorough road tests must anticipate that their favorite routes are impassable. Always discourage techs from challenging flood waters with customers' vehicles.