Jethro ‘J’ Poole is the manager and commercial tyre technician at M.D.F Truck Tyres, the commercial tyre arm and the newest of the M.D.F family of businesses. Operating from its base in Great Yarmouth, M.D.F Transport specialises in transport for the wind energy, oil and gas industries and transporting abnormal loads. Its 25 lorries and 70 trailers are maintained by M.D.F Commercials, its sister commercial workshop.
M.D.F Truck Tyres was conceived in 2020 when ‘J’ approached Mark Farrow, managing director at M.D.F about its tyre service work. 20 years’ experience as a commercial tyre technician and tyre depot manager, ‘J’ had a proven reputation for first-class service. Farrow proposed a new joint venture and M.D.F Truck Tyres was created.
As well as all the inspection and tyre maintenance work for M.D.F Commercial’s fleet, M.D.F Truck Tyres undertakes fleet, commercial, plant, and industrial tyre work for other businesses across Norfolk and Suffolk. Most recently new contracts have been secured with leading Norfolk firms Abbey Chemicals and Great Yarmouth Aggregates. ‘J’ reports that the new contracts are won on reputation.
“We offer one standard of service - the best. Everyone gets the same. Whether we’re fitting tyres to your rusty eight-wheeler or your fully branded quarter of a million-pound lorry, we won’t compromise on service.”
But initially delivering great service was coming at a cost. “Every time I sold a tyre, I’d have to manually enter the details into a giant spreadsheet. Manually itemising every delivery note. Every jobsheet for every job. And then our accountant would invoice off separately.”
Skip forward to 2022 and M.D.F Truck Tyres has invested in CAM’s fitter-force™, which is integrated into e-jobsheet for digital jobcards to manage its tyre stock, inbound jobcards, record keeping, invoicing, and so much more.
“I receive a call and now it’s easy to see what tyres I have in stock and quickly. No more physically having to go and look. I record and send the job straight off to my e-jobsheet tablet and I’m on the road to the breakdown.
“Once I’m with the vehicle, I can record all the details with 100% accuracy via the app. It feels safer, not recording on paper. And the customers have noticed too. Their jobsheets are clearer and easier to read. Plus the photos give them confidence in the work and help them keep track.”
Choosing CAM has also helped M.D.F Truck Tyres secure additional breakdown work.
“Because I am connected via TiDaeX™ and using e-jobsheet, I’m now receiving new tyre breakdown service work on a daily basis. The jobs are coming from breakdown services such as Tyrenet.”
‘J’ describes the impact of implementing the CAM solutions as making the business “100% more professional.” A shift that ‘J’ now hopes to leverage.
“We’re now more efficient. In fact, we’re more self-sufficient. I’ve taken back some of the work from our accountant and I’m invoicing clients directly. But it’s this new professionalism coupled with our service that will allow us to scale the business and win us more business. We’re moving forward in the right direction and soon hope to take on a new mobile tyre technician and add another van.”
