It might have been close to 20 years ago, but one time Chabill’s Tire & Auto Service had a wheel come off a vehicle. The company — the customer — and everyone else on the road that day, was incredibly fortunate because no one was injured.
Charley Gowland didn’t want that to ever happen again.
“Mr. Charley always felt like the one thing he at we did that he lost sleep over at night was putting wheels back on, because it’s so simple, but it can lead to somebody getting hurt,” recalls Carey Barron, director of operations.
When that happened, the company’s store managers were called into a meeting. They were locked in the board room and given 30 minutes to come up with a solution. And, they had to establish the consequences for anyone who doesn’t follow the policy.
Carey Barron says they needed a little extra time, but later emerged with a policy that stands today. In the shop, it’s referred to as double torque.
When a wheel is installed, a torque limiter will be used, and it will be run up to 55 pounds. After that, every lug nut is hand tightened by a technician while another person — usually the store manager or service advisor — watches. That observer has to sign off on the work order that it was done according to the process. (Only in rare cases where a store is short-staffed can a second technician serve as the witness. But even then, that technician has to sign the work order.)
“The consequences are, if a wheel comes off and that policy was not followed, both people lose their jobs immediately,” Carey Barron says.
It’s been five years since that happened. It cost the technician and a manager who had worked for the company for a dozen years their jobs.
“That’s a non-negotiable,” he says.
And there others. One is that employees are expected to arrive to work on time.
“It’s been a big issue, especially with younger people,” Carey Barron says. “I think while it’s a non-negotiable for most of us, some of the managers would rather have a bad employee than no employee, and they don’t understand how that affects the dynamic for everybody.”
He’s sent two members of his immediate family home unpaid because they couldn’t get to work on time.
“We work hard for the image that we have, (and) for people to understand that we’re trying to do the right things for the right reasons," he says. The easiest job we give anybody that works here is to get to work on time.”
The non-negotiables are designed to get every location, and every employee, on the same page. He wants store managers to lay out those expectations any time a new employee joins the team.
“This is what I expect from you. This is the standard you’re going to be held to. Then, when you have to have the conversation (about a problem), it’s not a surprise.”
