A NEW e-commerce service designed to help franchise dealers compete with fast-fits for fleet tyre business has been launched by epyx.
Called Tyreserve, it can be easily adopted by any garage that is registered as a supplier on epyx’s 1link Service Network platform, which includes almost every mainstream franchise dealer in the UK.
Similarly, fleets who use 1link Service Network can opt to employ Tyreserve as part of their normal, daily use of the platform to manage overall service and maintenance spending.
Currently, fleets users of the platform total more than three million vehicles, including all of the UK’s top 50 vehicle leasing companies.
A major leasing company is about to adopt Tyreserve
A complete tyre catalogue is available through 1link Service Network that will be charged at agreed prices. Dealers can draw tyres from their own stock or order them from distributors via epyx.
David Goodyear, head of business development at epyx, said: “At launch, we will have around 1,000 dealers signed up to offer Tyreserve from across a wide variety of franchises, which gives us a strong initial base of suppliers.
“Many, many franchise dealers do not really attempt to compete with fast-fits for tyre business at all but Tyreserve provides a mechanism for them to offer competitive pricing and a high level of customer service.”
David explained that franchise dealer abdication of selling tyres was often inconvenient for fleets.
“It is relatively common practice for a dealer to carry out a service on a company car or van, spot that tyres need replacing, and then advise the driver to take it to the nearest fast-fit.
“This is a waste of time for the driver and is not really a very good customer service offering. It makes much more sense for the vehicle to have its tyres replaced in the same workshop.”
David said that one major leasing company was just about to adopt Tyreserve and that several others were showing interest.
“The success of a project like this very much depends on being able to achieve significant numbers and we should be able to announce our first signing very soon.
“We are seeing considerable fleet interest but really everything depends on franchise dealers coming on board and recognising the profit and service potential that exists.”
