Because of the changing needs of shippers, trucking fleets often find it’s better to schedule truck repairs to be completed during their drivers’ rest periods or 34-hour restarts. Take, for example, Zimmerman Truck Lines (ztlinc.com) of Mifflintown, PA, a dry van and flatbed carrier operating a fleet of 120 trucks – nearly all Kenworths.
“The name of the game is knowing when your trucks will need to be repaired and fitting that work into your fleet’s schedule, not trying to fit your fleet’s schedule around those repairs,” says Thomas Naylor, a first-shift foreman at Zimmerman Truck Lines’ maintenance and repair shop. But with an ever-increasing number of advances in engine and diagnostic technologies each year, Naylor finds some repairs have grown increasingly more complex in nature, requiring technicians with more advanced training to complete them.
Naylor says he’s found that the local Kenworth (KW) dealer, Kenworth of Pennsylvania in Carlisle, not only offers extended hours to meet the company’s scheduling needs, but also has more technicians on staff certified to work on the PACCAR MX engines that power Zimmerman Truck Lines’ KWs.
Advanced Training
Frank Miller, executive vice president of the Kenworth of Pennsylvania dealer group (www.kwofpa.com), says that like all KW dealers, his dealerships have for years provided fleets and operators good service support with trained technicians. But with technological advances in the PACCAR engines, and engine and vehicle diagnostics with the Kenworth TruckTech+ remote diagnostics and service management system, the dealer group recently started providing technicians with more continuous advanced education.
This investment has paid off with four of its dealerships – Carlisle, Dunmore, New Stanton and Shartlesville – each earning certification in Kenworth Gold Certified status, Kenworth’s highest level of dealer service designation.
Kenworth Truck Company (www.kenworth.com) is the manufacturer of “The World’s Best” heavy and medium duty trucks.
Benefits
Zimmerman Truck Lines’ Naylor says his company greatly benefits from the rapid response times, particularly with warranty work, and he likes how Kenworth of Pennsylvania uses Kenworth TruckTech+ to constantly monitor his company’s trucks.
“Even though I also have access to the PACCAR Solutions web portal through my smartphone, in some cases, I’ll first hear about alerts from someone at the dealership,” Naylor says. “They’ll offer to help us troubleshoot them to determine if we need to deal with the situations immediately, or if we can hold off until the truck has completed its delivery before we bring it in for servicing.”
Parts availability and rapid delivery also go a long way in helping his shop provide the company’s fleet and the shop’s other fleet customers with fast and responsive service, adds Naylor.
