Michelin’s ONCall breakdown assistance service came to the rescue of Dungannon-based general and heavy haulage company Rice Continental, after one of its vehicles suffered a tyre failure and slow puncture while on a mammoth 3,800-mile journey to Baku in Azerbaijan.

The truck was part of a three-vehicle convoy transporting two rescue vessels and two davits from a ship in Cork, bound for a new vessel in the Caspian Sea. Whilst passing Eindhoven in the Netherlands, the driver carrying the davits reported a tyre failure on his SDC Euroliner trailer and a slow puncture on the drive axle of his Scania tractor unit – both running on competitor tyres.

Occurring early in to the 18-day outbound journey to Baku, Rice Continental turned to Michelin’s pan-European ONCall breakdown service to come to its aid at the roadside.

Maurice Rice, Owner at Rice Continental, says: “Normally if we suffer a tyre failure we’ll search the internet to find the closest tyre dealer and then give them a call, but I’d recently read about the Michelin ONCall service and decided to give them a try.

“I spoke to the Michelin OnCall team in the UK, and they arranged everything for me, including taking the payment on my credit card. A Euromaster technician was quickly on the scene and he fitted a new trailer tyre at the roadside, and then took the drive tyre back to the workshop for a repair. The whole job was completed in less than two hours, and we knew precisely what it was going to cost from the outset. It couldn’t have been simpler, and the price was very competitive.

“In the future, if one of our trucks were to suffer a tyre-related issue, I will be using the service again. It really took the stress out of the situation and our truck was back on its journey in no time.”

Michelin ONCall offers 24/7 truck, bus and coach tyre assistance service throughout the UK and across Europe using a network of more than 3,000 Michelin-accredited dealers. The service provides prompt reporting on all call outs and competitive pricing. It can be accessed by fleets and businesses of all sizes via a free Michelin MyAccount, with pay-as-you-go terms available. Michelin also offers fleets use of an Android and iOS app with geolocation capability for reporting roadside tyre failures in the UK and Ireland.

Rice Continental runs a fleet of seven tractor units and a mixed fleet of specialist trailers, and has been in operation for more than 40 years. It specialises in carrying abnormal loads, together with wheeled and tracked quarry equipment to central Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Russia.

Fleets can sign up for a free Michelin MyAccount by visiting https://myaccount.michelin.eu/en_GB/registration.

Michelin ONCall

About the Author: John Loughran