March 16, 2018—Three independent, heavy-duty truck shop workers have formed a task force to create detailed SOPs for the industry—certified guidelines that have not been introduced into the industry yet.
The three members have formed two task forces after attending the spring meeting of the ATA Technology & Maintenance Council (TMC) meeting.
One group—the Heavy-Duty Collision Repair Roadmap—is chaired by Joe Fassett, general manager of Al’s Automotive and Truck Service Center. The “roadmap” will be segmented by collision type, such as front end, rear, side, rollover and more.
In the past, TMC has created guidelines for painting and refinishing, but this will be a new area, said Robert Braswell, executive director of TMC.
Chris Sterwerf, chief financial officer and chief operations officer of Fairfield Auto & Truck Service, is the chair of the second task force. This group will develop recommendations to a program to include heavy-duty collision repair providers in TMC and identify needs for repair provider’s to improve the safety, quality and reliability of service in heavy-duty collision repair.
The groups will draft SOPs and send them out to be voted on by TMC’s entire membership of nearly 3,000 members.
Jim Kolea, president of Penn Fleet Corp. and secretary for Sterwerf’s group, says the group will try to draft the documents before the council’s fall meeting.
Fleet services are also joining the task force, including Ron Leonard, director of maintenance at Western Express.
