How did you get the word "preventive" in your title?

Steve Maxson, vice president of preventive maintenance, Averitt Express: "It's our overall philosophy. Our core competency is hauling freight. It's not repairing trucks.

"So, what we do is prevent vehicles from breaking down.

"Keeping vehicles working helps maximize vehicle utilization. That's the key to great customer service - and great profitability for us."

How many vehicles do you have?

"We run about 2,800 power units - of which about 900 are in our truckload operation - and about 8,500 trailers."

How do you keep all these trucks rolling?

"The most important tool we have is our people. We're very selective in our hiring. We want quality people, who understand the importance of taking care of our vehicles."

What is different about your approach to maintenance?

"We emphasize going beyond just changing oil and replacing filters. Everyone doing PMs focuses on doing a thorough inspection of the vehicle, while they do routine maintenance. "By inspecting, we can identify things that haven't yet become problems, or that might not be covered by regular maintenance. We can correct them - before they cause downtime."

	Steve Maxon, TDS's Rex Shirling and Bridgestone's Jeff Zaher hold an impromptu meeting on Averitt's Nashville Service Center lot.

How many people are on your staff?

"We have 110 technicians in our 17 service centers. We put our best people in some of the least glamorous jobs, because the best way to keep trucks on the road is to keep them out of the shop."

What do you mean "least glamorous"?

"Maintaining vehicles is generally nowhere near as exciting as repairing them. It can and should be routine, and it can even be boring at times. But - repairs cost - good preventive maintenance pays."

Do you do everything yourself?

"We rely on TDS to do most of our tire work. It's their area of expertise, not ours. We use several tire suppliers, but they're the lead dealer."

How did that come about?

"TDS has locations many of the places we do. Their people can be there quickly when we need something, and that helps us outsource many functions to them."

"In our Nashville service center, which is our largest, we have a TDS employee, Gene Street, working full-time, showing up every day, just like any other Averitt associate. And we treat him like one too."

What does he do?

"He maintains a supply of mounted tires in racks, ready to be installed on our vehicles.

"We find it's faster to bolt on a new mounted tire, then deal with the old tire later. We get the truck back into service, and can handle pulled tires more efficiently.

"Our TDS 'tire manager' keeps us supplied with Bridgestone R227 and M726 radials for our truckload power units, and R250 and M726 radials for the LTL tractors."

Gene Street, TDS's on-site tire manager at Averitt's Nashville Service Center, checks tread depths while a TDS truck picks up casings for retreading. TDS & Averitt Each Do What They Do Best Averitt Express focuses on its core competency, hauling freight. To that end, Steve Maxson puts a lot of reliance on TDS and its Nashville representative, Rex Shirling. "Rex and Gene Street, his man at our Nashville service center, are just as much Averitt associates as anyone on our payroll." "I count on Rex to keep me informed about new products and new ideas that can help us manage our tires better," says Steve. For his part, Rex enjoys working with Maxson and Averitt. "I find that my most important job is getting Steve the information he needs to make informed decisions," says Shirling. "Steve recognizes our expertise in tire management, and relies on us to take care of that. It's our responsibility to see that Averitt always has the right tires for its needs. "We're delivering tires every day, refurbishing wheels, managing casings, doing yard checks every Saturday, and providing detailed reports each quarter. "Steve says he regards us as 'associates,' but I think it goes beyond that. We feel there's a real 'partnership' between us and Averitt Express - and that's good for both of us."

How are those tires performing for you?

"We believe getting the right product is crucial. Right now, the R227s we're using on our truckload sleepers are lasting about 125,000 miles. The M726 drive tires are good for about 300,000 miles.

"On the LTL units, we probably get about 80,000 miles from the R250s we use on steers, and somewhere between 200,000 and 250,000 from the M726s we have on drives. Of course, LTL is a lot tougher on tires than truckload is."

Are you using retreads?

"We're running Bandag's 4310 on drives and High Speed on trailers. Our on-site TDS man also handles casing management, deciding what to send out, and what kind of treads to put on each casing."

Do you do your own tire maintenance?

"It depends on the location. In Nashville, we already have a well-equipped shop, so we do quite a bit of work on site. At some of our other service centers, we rely on dealers to handle tires for us."

Averitt's home office is in Cookeville, Tennessee, yet your maintenance operations are concentrated in Nashville. Why is that?

"Most of our trucks come through Nashville on a regular basis. Three major interstates come together here, and most of our major suppliers are located here.

"We also handle more freight in our Nashville service center than in any of the others. It made good sense to put our primary maintenance facility in Nashville.

"TDS does yard checks, usually on Saturdays, at about 10 locations. Saturday works best, because more of our trucks are at the service centers on weekends. TDS also is doing both scrap and irregular wear surveys for us.

"Every quarter, they do a fleet check, and we have a meeting to discuss our tire opportunities."

What kinds of opportunities have you discovered?

"We're pulling our M726 drive tires at 10 - 11 32nds, and moving them back to trailers. That gives drivers fresh drive tires, and lets us get a lot of extra miles out of those M726s before we retread.

"We also pull tires on trailers at 4/32nds. We could wait until they hit 2/32nds, but you don't see trailers as often as tractors, and there's always the risk that they'll be too shallow by the time you see them in the yard again."

Who maintains correct inflation pressures?

"Everybody. Drivers check air pressures as part of their pre-trip inspection. TDS checks them on Saturdays and we check them at every PM, which takes place about every 60 days.

"Correct inflation is crucial to getting maximum mileage from tires. That's important for keeping cost per mile down and equipment availability high."

Your shop also is ISO 9002 certified. What does that mean?

"ISO 9002 required us to develop a quality assurance system and documentation to describe it. Then, we had to create procedures that are appropriate for that system. And, create plans to fulfill all our quality system requirements. "ISO 9002 helps us in our work with Saturn, Honda and Mercedes. It's customer-driven, and requires us to 'practice what we preach.'"

And what do you 'preach' about maintenance?

"Do your preventive maintenance right, and you'll minimize the need for repairs. That keeps costs down and customer service levels up."