Have you ever looked in your toolbox for a certain instrument and come up short? Maybe what you need to more efficiently fix your truck exists in the distinctive tool kit provided to individuals who join Technology & Maintenance Council (TMC), North America’s premier technical society for truck equipment technology and maintenance professionals.
A key implement in TMC’s member benefit kit is access to an endless source of information about truck and equipment maintenance, shop management and vehicleand equipment spec’ing, called the TMC Recommended Maintenance & Engineering Practices Manuals.
TMC’s two-volume set of recommended practices (RPs) manuals is available online to members and on searchable compact disks – a handy feature since there are more than 400 individual RPs covering every vehicle system and filling more than 3,500 pages. Also, many of the RPs are illustrated.
Another benefit TMC members enjoy is a wide range of discounts on fuel, tires and new and used trucks – to name a few – with the Truckers B2B program. Moreover, TMC’s technical staff produces numerous publications and periodicals to keep members up-to-date on trucking industry regulations, maintenance parts recalls and scheduling preventative maintenance.
PROBLEM SOLVING
TMC members can visit http://TMCConnect.trucking.org – TMC’s social networking and collaborative platform, TMC Connect. Here, they can search for a particular system – for example, brakes – and that search would come back with numerous RPs, ranging from air brakes to wheel bearing adjustment procedures.
Technology drives much of the information TMC offers, but it’s not the only delivery system. TMC holds two meetings each year where fleet maintenance professionals and industry suppliers put their heads together to solve problems the old-fashioned way, with face-to-face discussions.
The meetings also feature in-depth educational sessions that focus on topics TMC members have told us they want to know more about, and recognized thought leaders are called in to speak.
OPPORTUNITIES TO NETWORK
“You don’t get the full impact if you just come to meetings,” says Terry A. Ebert, national fleet manager for JET Transit, a trucking company located in Jasper, Ind. A TMC member since 1997, he says: “There’s so much knowledge in TMC, and participating creates your networking group.”
Current TMC Chairman Kevin Tomlinson, maintenance director for South Shore Transportation – a flatbed truckload services company based in Sandusky, Ohio – feels much of TMC’s value is in business and personal relationships. “When I have a maintenance issue, I go to TMC’s Membership Directory and find someone in TMC to help me sort it out. The network I’ve created cuts to the chase and saves me time and money when I need answers.”
“I’ve received a plethora of information from TMC that I’ve used to implement changes and control costs in my company,” says Mike Jeffress, vice president of maintenance for Maverick Transportation of Little Rock, Ark., a provider of transportation and logistics services. “The changes have improved our overall environment and operation.”
If you have trucks and equipment and you aren’t a TMC member, you’re working harder than you have to.
For additional information on membership, or to join, go to http://jointmc.trucking.org or email TMC at [email protected].
Janet Howells-Tierney serves as the director of council development for TMC – the only industry association that is focused solely on truck technology and maintenance. She is responsible for the recruiting and building of TMC membership, and also functions as the communications link for TMC for Council activity.
