Rice Tire Co., which is headquartered in Frederick, Md., has around 70 service trucks at its 11 locations.
There is a service truck driver for each vehicle and at least two service trucks at each location are on 24/7 call.
Brian Chase, Rice Tire’s president, says it takes lots of “vigilance and constant attention” to keep the dealership’s service truck technicians safe.
Safety, he says, seems to be the “first thing people forget about when they get busy.”
That’s why Rice Tire relies heavily on inspections and location managers to keep technician safety at the forefront of employee's minds.
Safety in service
Each Rice Tire service truck technician must complete a pre-trip vehicle inspection and log that daily. Then every week, those logs are sent to the dealership’s corporate office.
“These daily checks involve checking for any leaks in the vehicle and checking the tires, brakes, lights, mirrors and doors,” says Chase “Then they check the emergency equipment.” (Each service truck has fire extinguishers, reflective triangles and any other tool the technician may need.)
After this 10- to 15-minute process is done and the location’s manager signs off on the inspection, the technician is ready to hit the road.
“From the vehicle side, we manage the preventative maintenance through a software called Fleetio, which alerts us when a (preventive) service needs to be done or has been done,” says Chase.
“We are able to use Fleetio to manage those things in order to try our best to keep the trucks as safe as possible.”
Rice Tire’s trucks also are equipped with hands-free calling, so technicians are able to easily access 911 in an emergency situation.
‘Two main things’
“We talk to our (technicians) about two main things when it comes to safety — one, where to park their truck when working on a vehicle in order to keep them and the vehicle safe.”
The second thing Chase insists upon is that technicians call the highway patrol or local police department and request blockage of a lane if the situation is unsafe.
An alternative is limping to the nearest exit and getting off the highway.
“We stress that if it’s not a safe work environment, they need to take their time and make it safe before they start working.”
Fighting fatigue
Rice Tire has many practices in place to combat technician fatigue.
“One thing we are really pushing for is to have our managers make sure they take care of the drivers and to have them keep a watchful eye on how much someone's running and make sure they’re not running tired,” says Chase.
If a manager does see a driver showing fatigue, he will have the driver take the morning off and come back later or have them rest somewhere else.
“Driver fatigue is mostly (felt by) the guys who are running night calls.”
It’s up to the location manager to check in with technicians each morning, which has multiple benefits, according to Chase.
“One, the managers get the paperwork from any calls the techs ran the night before and secondly, they can address the driver’s state and how they are feeling.”
Chase says driver fatigue causes people to take shortcuts, which causes more mistakes and worse, injuries.
He says when service truck technicians try to push their minds and bodies past their limits, they put themselves – and Rice Tire’s customers - in a dangerous situation.
Exercise caution
“The number one thing to remember when it comes to service truck safety is it’s not rocket science to take your time, do the follow-up protocols and when in doubt, always err on the side of caution,” says Chase.
Every month, Rice Tire holds a safety meeting where the team discusses all aspects of in-store and on-road safety. On these days, the location manager will also inspect service trucks.
Safety and regional managers also can make surprise visits to Rice Tire locations to make sure “we’re not just getting it right one day a month,” says Chase.
“At the end of the day, changing a tire is worth no one’s life.”
