TravelCenters Updates Maintenance Operations
Best known for its TA and Petro Stopping Centers truck stops — 249 in the United States and one in Ontario — TA also performs truck maintenance through six subsidiaries, each with a different name.
At the Mid-America Trucking Show here, manager of technical development Homer Hogg said the maintenance units will all be known as TA Truck Service as of April 1.
In addition to TA Truck Service, the five other brands now renamed were PetroLube, RoadSquad, RoadSquad Connect, RoadSquad OnSite and eShop. The two truck stop chains, TA and Petro, will keep their respective names.
“We’ll be like AAA for trucks,” Hogg said. “There will be no subscription fee. We’ll just charge for repairs.”
Hogg said TA discovered customers of one unit did not realize the affiliation with the others and weren’t always using the proper company.
In addition to maintenance in truck stops, TA Truck Service does break down repairs on the road and sends mobile repair shops to the terminals of fleet customers.
Hogg said TATS has started using Six Sigma management techniques to improve the quality of repair work and keep it at a consistently high level. Each shop will have a technical quality manager to manage the workflow through the shops’ bays.
Hogg said TATS technicians receive extra training through online courses and then in-person with instructors. The company has training centers in Arizona, Ohio and Tennessee.
