Goodyear launches website, revamped app

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md.—Goodyear has launched a new commercial truck website, goodyeartrucktires.com, and an improved SmartTech app designed to optimize operations for both Goodyear commercial truck dealers and their customers, according to the company.

Fleet owners can create a customized profile online at the website by answering a few questions the website poses, according to Goodyear.

In response, the website creates a “Total Solution” of products, services, programs and a dealer network that is personalized to help fleet owners save money, the company said.

The new site makes it easy for fleet owners to select the tires and retreads that are right for their trucks, according to Goodyear. Users of the site can select tires by application, vocation, name, size, technologies and SmartWay verification, the company said.

“We wanted to provide a total solution to any fleet that came to the site,” said Dustin Lancy, Goodyear commercial brand marketing specialist, who demonstrated the new website at the Goodyear National Dealer Conference at the Gaylord Resort and Conference Center in National Harbor.

“We're learning who is coming to the site and providing them with the best information possible,” Lancy said. “Our goal is to get the buyer to the dealer.”

The updated SmartTech app saves a great deal of time and effort for truckers, fleet owners and technicians alike, according to Jose Martinez, Goodyear commercial, digital and solutions manager.

With the old app, technicians would waste time entering all the information about a stranded truck driver—what type of tire, what type of fleet, etc., according to Martinez.

“But now,” he said, “if I take a service call at three in the morning, I open SmartTech and see the ticket, and all the information is already there.”

The SmartTech app offers an automatic time stamp in real time when the technician arrives; easy access to Goodyear Fleet HQ via comments or a call button; an easy method of taking pictures with a time stamp in real time; a review of billing for accuracy and to verify TirePix requirements; a feature to obtain the driver's signature for proof of completed service; and precise timing and mileage for billing, ensuring completion of all steps in the process.

“The SmartTech app confirms the right things are being done to the right truck,” Martinez said.

Goodyear will require all its commercial customers to start using the SmartTech app by the end of March 2016, according to Martinez. Goodyear Fleet HQ's total “roll time”—the time between a trucker calls in a problem and the time he's back on the road—has fallen to two hours, 11 minutes since the app was introduced, and the company expects roll time to fall under two hours once it has achieved 100 percent use of the app, he said.