Clive Seabrook, CEO at Pro-Align, explains how many businesses – despite knowing the impact that misalignment can have on the management of tyres and fuel consumption – do not take the opportunity to boost profit and revenue to their workshop.
Remarkably, workshop owners have not yet grasped the mighty revenue and profit opportunities that professional alignment servicing can have, especially those working in the commercial vehicle sectors.
Pro-Align regularly speaks with its workshop customers around the UK, who say time and time again just how much profit they are making by offering a free alignment check to their customers.
There are a number of different ways vehicles can be misaligned, from general wear and tear through rough terrain and potholes, and kerbing issues resulting from loading and unloading, a common issue multidrop delivery vans encounter.
With many commercial vehicles often accumulating big miles, it’s important that an alignment check is completed regularly to ensure that any negative impacts are minimised or avoided completely.
Hunter efficiency
In a direct attempt to overcome the time challenges, workshops equipped with the Hunter WinAlign HD alignment system can carry out fast and accurate wheel alignment diagnostics for multi-axle trucks in just four minutes, meaning it’s now quicker than ever to highlight a potential paying work opportunity to workshop customers.
Standard wheel alignment procedures require technicians to carry out 17 different operations, taking around 15 minutes. With the Hunter system, the much simpler and slicker process requires only seven steps, which can all be completed in just four minutes. Indeed, given the financial and service benefits to operators of regular wheel alignment checks, both Pro-Align and its commercial vehicle workshop customers are noticing an increased demand for the service.
Hunter difference
Gavin Hewitt, Aftersales Director at Northside Truck and Van, comments: “With the addition of the dedicated Hunter commercial vehicle aligner in our workshops, we are able to identify wheel alignment issues for our customers in a fraction of the time we have before. Not only is it more efficient for our workshop, saving in time and labour, but it also gives our customers incredibly accurate results, every time.
“The system’s customer friendly printouts allow us to illustrate any alignment issues that have been identified on the vehicle and have since allowed us to hugely increase our alignment job sales, all the while giving our customers peace of mind of a job well done.
“Having already reaped the benefits of the aligner at our Immingham site, we have now invested in further units at our workshops in Sheffield, Doncaster, Hull and Leeds.”
