Volvo truck and bus dealer cuts vehicle downtime in half with AES UK
Wheel alignment technology is helping a Volvo dealer to save money and reduce vehicle downtime for its customers.
Thomas Hardie Commercials Ltd is the main distributor for Volvo Truck, Bus & Coach in the North-West of England, North Wales and Lancashire. The multi award-winning company has six franchised Volvo Truck and bus dealerships, supported by three smaller sites, plus Thomas Hardie Vehicle Solutions (THVS), providing repairs, painting, aftermarket services and refurbishment of trucks and trailers.
The group has invested in a Josam Cam-aligner from Automotive Equipment Solutions (AES UK), a leading provider of commercial vehicle garage equipment. Being the only Volvo Truck & Bus-approved wheel aligner on the UK market, the Josam Cam-aligner enables workshops and maintenance centres to offer faster and more accurate wheel alignment services. For its part, Thomas Hardie has equipped one of its service vans with the kit, giving them the flexibility to provide wheel alignment services, either at its own workshops or at customers’ premises.
Chris Whalley, group truck and bus manager, said: “We have already seen a return on investment from the Josam Cam-aligner as it enabled us to take wheel alignment completely in-house. We carry out tracking checks on new vehicles as part of our PDI. In addition, for wheel alignment we can now go to the customer rather than have them bring their vehicles to us. This saves on fuel and tyres and reduces vehicle downtime for our clients.”
Easy and quick to use, the Josam Cam-aligner uses wireless technology to transmit data between measuring units and the computer, while the software guides the user through the measuring process and produces reports of before and after alignment. Using centerline technology, the system helps align all axles to the vehicle chassis, ensuring each alignment is correctly carried out first time.
The Josam system works seamlessly with Thomas Hardie’s other diagnostic tools, especially for adjusting electronic steered axles – a simple process whereby the technician calibrates the steering system while monitoring the wheel angles in real time on a laptop.
“Customer vehicle downtime has now halved thanks to the specialised equipment from Josam,” added Chris. “The accuracy of the tracking is also saving our customers money, and they absolutely love that. Our data shows that identifying and replacing worn steering components can add up to 10 percent extra mpg to a vehicle, which is a huge difference.”
AES UK delivered in-depth training for Thomas Hardie’s 11 master technicians as well as Chris, ensuring the entire team were fully confident and comfortable with the technology.
“The support we received from AES has been second to none,” added Chris. “While we were getting to grips with the technology, any time we encountered an issue we called them and they either fixed it over the phone or came in person extremely quickly. Their rapid response and customer service helps to ensure we keep customer vehicle downtime to a minimum.”
