"Crown and MBM Corporation have a lot in common. We both go above and beyond to deliver and satisfy our customers. In the past, MBM viewed material handling equipment as disposable. Our philosophy was that if the product lasted 36-42 months, then we were happy. In the mid 1990s, our company grew fast and we didn’t have a structured maintenance program. Our fleet size was larger than it needed to be due to unnecessary downtime. We didn’t call a service technician until the truck was broke and then we hired the company with the cheapest labour rate. However, we soon realised that although our approach was cheaper in the beginning, we experienced a reoccurring scenario of replacing parts over and over again. This replacement cost added up over time. That is, until we changed our outlook.

Crown’s FleetSTATS tracking system helped with this. With the information gathered from this system, we were able to gain control of our costs and identify opportunities to improve our fleet performance. With Crown Integrity Service, we learned that it’s not about using the cheapest labour rate or the cheapest replacement part; it’s about spending a little more upfront for a high-quality, reliable maintenance program.

We quickly found out that to really determine how much a company spends on material handling equipment and service, you need to look at data at the distribution centre level down to the asset level. We felt that we needed a structured national program in place. Without a structured maintenance program, we would spend more money to maintain our other trucks—often three times as much—when compared to a Crown truck. We realized that just as we want our customers to view us as a partner and expert in distribution, we needed to find a partner and expert in material handling equipment.

We found that partner with Crown. Crown is consistent in delivering quality service while also being trustworthy and reliable. While many companies segregate the purchase, ongoing maintenance and replacement analysis among different people or departments, Crown does it all under one umbrella. The Crown Integrity Service System has proven to give MBM the lowest cost of ownership. We trust the System to help us decide what product to use in our distribution centres and how to maintain the trucks. Crown is all about helping me service my customers better and they understand our objectives: we have customers that we need to take care of.

It’s the System behind the technician that makes it happen. If trucks are down, then we get behind and we can’t move orders. Uptime is important because our customers can’t sell their product if we can’t deliver the product—Crown’s Integrity Service System is about fixing it right the first time and getting the truck moving again. Crown’s service technicians get in, get it done and get out so we can keep product moving."