Serco's after sales service takes customer care to a new level

  Serco, preferred suppliers  for Shoprite Checkers, conducted a national inspection of the premier South African supermarket chain's trailer fleet earlier this year to establish whether any features could be improved to offer better durability.

The inspection - just part of the added value provided by Serco to continuously identify ways to improve its vehicles - revealed two areas of concern which demanded  urgent attention.

The first was that the trailers rear door frames and light boxes were suffering significant damage when loading at Shoprite's Midrand DC.

Serco's Tony van der Maat, with input from the company's technical team, put a proposal together to modify the trailer rear section and tested the concept on an existing unit. The results proved the modification was successful.  Further the rear light box was changed to a bolt-on design to facilitate easy removal and replacement for more efficient future maintenance.

In addition Serco introduced two heavy duty horizontal steel roller buffers which were fitted to the re-enforced rear section of the chassis.

On top of all this dock rubbers at Shoprite's DC were repositioned to ensure trailers made contact directly to the newly re-enforced rear sections.

The highly satisfying result has been reduced damage and maintenance for the trailers.

The second area of concern was at Shoprite's KwaZulu-Natal DC where it was discovered that front trailer suzis and the header plate were suffering damage during shunting.  A reason for this was that the shunting trucks 5^th wheel were higher than the truck tractors in the fleet, which resulted in impact when hitching.

Serco reinforced and increased the elevation of the front tapered lead on to raise the header plate thus ensuring there was additional clearance during hitching. The result of the refinement was once again reduced damage and less maintenance - this time to the front of trailers! 

Previous improvements introduced by Serco include its imported Whiting roll-over door which proved to be a great success, showing improved durability in comparison to what was used previously.

Gawie du Toit, National Transport Manager for Shoprite, said he was very pleased with the modifications Serco had made to the trailers.  “The modifications have been very practical ones resulting in gains for our company through a reduction in both damages and maintenance.

“We enjoy the after sale service care Serco provides and appreciate its concern about always looking for ways to improve their units.”