The yard tractor is a fleet unit too
A distribution yard or a terminal usually has a unit that never leaves the property: the yard tractor, also called a spotter or a yard dog. It moves trailers between the dock doors and the parking rows all day, every day, and it is often the hardest working vehicle the operation owns.
It is also the one most often left off the fleet list. It has no route, no mileage that anyone tracks, and no driver logbook. Its tires are replaced when one fails, which tends to happen at the moment the yard is busiest and the dock schedule can least absorb a stopped spotter.
Yard work is hard on tires in a particular way. The distances are short, but the unit is turning tightly and constantly, coupling and uncoupling loaded trailers, and starting and stopping hundreds of times a shift. Scrubbing, not distance, is what wears the tread. A tire on a yard tractor can be finished long before its odometer suggests it should be.
Put it on the account
Treat the yard tractor the way you would a road unit:
- List it with its sizes and positions, so the right tire is identified without a phone call.
- Inspect it on a schedule, set by hours or by weeks rather than miles.
- Record what comes off and why. A spotter that keeps wearing the same position is telling you something about how it is being driven or loaded.
The same goes for any other unit that lives on site: a service truck, a forklift on pneumatic tires, a pickup that runs between buildings.
What else the account covers
Specifications by position for every class of unit, scheduled work, terms and authorization settled once, and records by unit. Sixteen services sit behind it, including heavy-duty truck alignment, trailer alignment, OTR services and the full car and light truck list. Who authorizes work, and how you want it billed, is settled at setup.
Other stores nearby
Osage Beach and Springfield also run fleet accounts in Missouri.
About this store
The Kansas City store carries all nine Purcell tire categories, opens at 7:00 AM, and is managed by Richard Kerber.
See the national fleet services page for the other 48 locations.