Cover the Vehicle, Not the Individual
Encore Protection offers commercial and fleet roadside assistance programs to protect your employees while they’re driving across North America! Our pay-per-vehicle plans allow you to provide complete protection for each of your vehicles, no matter which employee may be driving. Our commercial and fleet roadside services are designed to get your employees back on the road as quickly as we can – keeping your team and your bottom line safe!
Our Fleet Roadside Assistance Plans
Commercial and Fleet Program: Our classic roadside service program is tailored for fleet services, providing you and your team with competitive, comprehensive roadside assistance. We’ll provide you with a quote for your whole fleet with additional bulk discounting for fleets with greater than four vehicles. This enables our pay-per-vehicle fleet roadside program to accumulate additional savings for your whole team!
To learn more about our commercial and fleet roadside assistance plans and programs or to enroll today, please complete the quick-response form online.
We Provide Assistance With:
Towing
If towing is required, your vehicle will be carefully transported to the nearest qualified service facility.
Tire Delivery & Changes
Don’t have the correct tools, or just don’t want to get dirty? In the event of a flat tire, prompt help is just a phone call away.
Fluid Delivery
Out on fluids? An emergency supply can be on its way to you in minutes.
Fuel Delivery
Out of fuel? An emergency supply can be on its way to you in minutes.
Battery Jump & Delivery
Left your lights on and the battery needs a jump? Call your 24-Hour Emergency Response Center.
Lockouts
If you’ve lost your keys (or locked them inside) assistance will be provided to gain entry to your vehicle.
Extrication & Winching
If your vehicle is not drivable, it will be towed to the nearest qualified repair center.
Mobile Mechanic*
With our traveling auto mechanic services, we will come to you and get your vehicle back on the road.
*Subject to certain geographical limitations.
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Proper Corporate Fleet Maintenance
Your business relies on commercial vehicles. You rely on your fleet to be up and running in proper working order around the clock. When your vehicles are grounded for repairs, you lose money. It really is that simple. By keeping your fleet maintained, your employees are able to keep working and your business keeps running.
There are basic steps that you can take to keep your vehicles operating smoothly, no matter the size of your fleet. Stick to the steps below to ensure your trucks are running at maximum level.
Always depend on your drivers as they are the first to notice issues that crop up with your vehicles. Keep a good line of communication open, and make sure your drivers know how to report issues with the fleet. Designate certain drivers to be responsible for inspecting vehicles, and tell drivers how you expect them to report any maintenance needs that arise.
Any vehicle runs better and longer when it is given preventative maintenance and that includes the vehicles in your fleet. Oil changes, brake service, tire rotations and tune ups will help to detect minor issues sooner and prevent major ones from occurring. You may be hesitant to spend money on preventative maintenance, especially if your fleet is large, but a bit of money now could save you thousands in the long run.
Routine maintenance will only get you so far. Breakdowns and accidents occur, and they can effectively shut down your fleet. Be proactive with repairs to suffer as little damage to your bottom line as possible. The sooner you have repairs completed, the less chance they have of becoming costly nightmares. Find a mechanic you can trust if you don’t have one on your own staff and get your vehicles fixed in a timely manner.
Many people have roadside assistance for their personal vehicles, but you may be surprised at how many business owners don’t realize that the same service exists for commercial vehicles. Find a plan that provides around-the-clock coverage and purchase it. There are several plans that are customizable, meaning you can meet the needs of your business, employees and customers.Too many business owners wait for their fleet vehicles to break down before they consider adopting a maintenance plan. Put your plan together before you need it and keep your fleet operating in peak condition. Not only will you have vehicles you can rely on, but your business will stay in operation for years to come.
For more information about commercial roadside assistance and proper commercial fleet maintenance, please contact Encore Protection. We are in the business of making sure your business operates as it should. By providing exceptional service for your commercial vehicle fleet, our team of dedicated employees helps to ensure that your bottom line doesn’t suffer.
Why Should You Trust a Third-Party for Your Corporate Fleet Roadside Assistance Management?
Like all business owners, you want the many aspects of your corporation to run as smoothly as possible – but what if the best way to increase efficiency is to trust another company with one of your largest investments?
Your fleet quite literally keeps your business in motion. When one of your vehicles experiences an emergency or breakdown, your corporation and your profits are halted. In order to avoid any major issues, companies like yours may be managing fleet roadside assistance in-house. However, dedicated in-house fleet managers have become increasingly rare in the private sector, as many corporations are seeing the benefits of outsourcing their fleet roadside assistance needs to a trusted third-party.
Should your company take the initiative to outsource your fleet roadside assistance? To help you decide, we’ve outlined below some of the benefits you can expect when allowing a third-party to manage your fleet.
By trusting a third-party for your fleet roadside assistance management, your company will streamline your fleet efficiencies, as well as those not related to your fleet. With the extra time not dedicated to managing the minute details of your fleet, you can better focus on your company’s core competencies while continuing to maintain administrative control. For instance, a third-party fleet roadside services company will provide a centralized number for driver support, simplifying the process and allowing you to run your business.
As a result, companies who outsource their fleet roadside assistance needs will often experience improved fleet availability, better reliability, greater cash flow, and increased productivity.
Your company has its many areas of expertise – but fleet management may not be one of them. Without expert third-party roadside assistance for your fleets, your organization may incur higher costs for parts and other expenses. Plus, reduced time and resources spent on fleet management will allow for significantly improved productivity and profitability for your corporation.
Outsourcing is also more tax-efficient – you can write off all the outsourcing costs accrued each year, rather than spreading it through capital expenditure allowances.
Thanks to their experience, fleet roadside assistance companies understand and can implement best practices into their management techniques. Plus, because they often manage many companies at once, they can better gauge the strengths and weaknesses of your fleet, allowing for improved performance in the long run. And with the knowledge they bear, their third-party fleet roadside assistance plans often use the most proven cost-effective policies from the offset, enabling you to bypass any trial-and-error period.
One of the most important aspects as the head of a company is ensuring that you are not at risk to be held accountable for compliance and regulation requirements of which you are not knowledgeable. By outsourcing your fleet roadside assistance needs, you wash your hands of responsibility for OSHA, DOT and other regulatory standards. For many companies, this perk is enough to convince them that fleet roadside assistance is better handled by a third-party.
In addition to reducing head count, outsourcing your fleet roadside assistance can quickly redirect personnel and even financial resources to your business’ core activities, thereby increasing productivity and improving your bottom line.
By trusting third-party roadside assistance for fleets, companies often receive greater transparency and technological opportunities, both of which allow for you to obtain a better understanding of how your investment is being used and how your profitability can be improved.
Not only can specialized fleet management companies train and educate your drivers, but they also have the knowledge to make well-informed purchasing decisions regarding fuel and vehicles. Plus, by investing in their own company’s future, they often end up on the cutting-edge in regards to technology, processes and equipment.
Just like how you want your business to retain a respected reputation, fleet roadside assistance companies want to keep their clients happy. To earn your loyalty, these companies will dedicate themselves to high-quality services and customer satisfaction. And with experience on their side, established fleet management companies also have well-honed quality assurance processes to avoid mishaps that your team may have experienced on their own.
Common Commercial and Fleet Roadside Assistance Questions
Electric trucks are expected to revolutionize the shipping industry. It’s widely accepted that electric and self-driving trucks will be a necessary and welcome answer to the capacity crunch the industry is facing. However, they won’t be able to completely replace drivers.
The responsibilities of drivers will simply shift to tasks like documenting the state of the goods when they are delivered. Additionally, it will be necessary for a human hand to guide every stage of the automation process, at least for the foreseeable future.
For example, with our current technology, a robot is not able to determine the best possible way to load and stack cargo for optimum loads. That may change in the future, but it won’t happen until the industry has time to adapt and change to the new technology of electric trucks.
Drivers will also continue to be vital to detect mechanical problems on the road, which tend to begin as a strange noise that robots can’t pick up yet.
Any driver should have an emergency kit stowed in their vehicle. Truck drivers are included, but may need to put together a slightly different kit than a person who commutes to work by passenger vehicle. Here is what should be in your kit.
If you go home daily:
Gallon of water
Food to last for two days
Charger for your cell phone
Credit card
Multi-function tool
Spare change of clothes
Atlas
Hat or cap and sunglasses
Small first-aid kit
Extra pair of shoes
A piece of paper with your emergency contact info
If you go home on the weekend:
Generally, you will need what a person who goes home every night does but a bit more.
Three gallons of water (or more)
Food to last five days
Can opener
Plate, bowl, cup, eating utensils
Hot pot
Inverter
Soap and towel
Sleeping bag
Pillow
Seasonal clothes
A larger first-aid kit
Flashlight
Basic tools
Truck stop directory
Portable toilet
Personal hygiene items
Credit card
Cash
If you are home every two to three weeks:
More water and food than above
A water filter
Clothing
Laundry supplies
Sewing kit
Emergency radio
Candles and matches
Extra pair of glasses or contacts
Flashlight and batteries
More cash
In addition to your emergency kit, no matter the size, make sure that you have commercial roadside assistance coverage. It could mean the difference between being stranded and getting on your way.
The Unified Registration System (URS) is a system for the registration of freight carriers. With this new system, the FMCSA is bringing its registration process into the 21st century. Instead of the paper forms and faxes that were used in the past, this electronic system will combine a number of registration and updating processes.
An electronic on-line registration system, URS, streamlines and simplifies the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) registration process and serve as a clearinghouse and depository of information on all entities regulated by the Agency, including motor carriers, brokers, freight forwarders, intermodal equipment providers (IEPs), hazardous materials safety permit (HMSP) applicants/holders, and cargo tank manufacturing and repair facilities.
All interstate motor carriers (private and for-hire), freight forwarders, brokers, IEPs, HMSP applicants/holders, and cargo tank manufacturing and repair facilities must comply with this rule.
Primarily, the URS will unify registration data housed in multiple FMCSA systems into one authoritative database, reducing the possibility for conflicting registration data between the systems. The URS will streamline manual processes and combine several forms into one unified online registration form. This will save time and administrative costs for the industry and FMCSA. This rule will also improve FMCSA’s ability to locate small and medium-sized private and exempt for-hire motor carriers when enforcement action is necessary.
Capacity crunch is a term that refer to a shortage of trucks on the roads. We are in the middle of a capacity crunch right now for a handful of different reasons, including a shortage of drivers, new ELD regulations, the strength of the economy and the number of packages being shipped, and the pressure of ecommerce like Amazon’s 2-day free shipping.
It was anticipated that we would only feel a capacity pinch, not a full blown crunch, but natural disasters during hurricane season pushed that pinch all the way over the edge. This makes freight forwarding more important than ever before companies need integrated solutions across all types of carriers to be able to get their goods to their destination in the appropriate time frame.
Capacity crunch also raises the cost of shipping. Overcoming the capacity crunch will require preplanning and understanding how different methods of shipping will affect your bottom line.
Platooning is a concept where types of vehicles travel together at close speeds with the help of enhanced roads and cars that make it possible. In some ways, it has been pitted against self-driving cars in the quest to make our roadways more efficient and less dangerous. Platooning could protect trucks from the human errors of other drivers and themselves.
The responsibilities of drivers would change and they would still be required to largely operate the vehicle, but computer systems would allow the computer to automatically find the center of the lane, stay in it, and maintain a correct distance behind the leading vehicle. Trucks could travel much closer together because the need for human reaction time is greatly decreased. Up to 25 trucks could form a platoon and travel together, with the enhanced infrastructure allowing them to accelerate and decelerate simultaneously.
A highway with platooning capabilities was tested in California, but the investment has shifted to self-driving cars that require no additional infrastructure.