Have you ever considered how specializing in only a few makes and models could create efficiencies that would set you apart from your competition? Robert Fitzgerald, president and CEO of Fitzgerald Collision and Repair (FCR) in Livingston, Tennessee, has found a business model that allows his shop to offer the fastest turnaround in the industry for heavy-duty truck collision repairs.
In trucking, time is money, with every day a truck is down costing the company lost revenue. In fact, FCR offers owner-operators a payment of $150 per day if it can’t repair their truck within 10 days of repair approval. It draws wrecked trucks from all over the contiguous U.S., transporting them back to the shop, and then delivering them upon completion to the customer, if necessary.
It was by suggestion of someone who would be his first customer that Fitzgerald got started in the collision repair business. In 2013, he was working in the family business, Fitzgerald Glider Kits, in nearby Byrdstown, Tennessee. That business assembles painted and mostly complete truck “kits” sold by OEMs, less the engine, transmission, and rear axle assemblies. Glider kit assemblers such as Fitzgerald then install rebuilt or remanufactured components to deliver what is essentially a new truck, at a much lower cost. Impressed with the speed at which the company could assemble these trucks, Max Fuller, co-founder of trucking company U.S. Xpress, suggested to Robert Fitzgerald that he may be able to reduce the downtime he was facing in waiting to get trucks back on the road.
“At the time, I was not aware of just how big the need was for a better way to repair heavy-duty trucks,” Fitzgerald said. “After Max explained to me that he was waiting as long as 58 days for many of his trucks to be repaired, it really caught my attention.”
So with Fuller agreeing to be his first customer, in 2014 Fitzgerald found a shop in nearby Livingston and sold his shares in Fitzgerald Glider Kits. He said he started out specializing in the make and model most common to large carriers, the Freightliner Cascadia.
“When I first started building out the collision center, I had zero experience repairing wrecks...no paint experience, frame experience or bodywork experience,” Fitzgerald said. “I had envisioned a high-volume collision center that would someday serve all the major fleets but no idea exactly how to pull it off. Like many other companies, we started with friends and family, because not just anyone will come to work with you without proof that your business idea will even work.
“Looking back, we definitely could have saved a lot of money and time bringing in more experience in the beginning, but I also think there was insight gained by looking at things from a fresh perspective. One of my friends had owned his own body shop, so he played a major role in getting the paint and body departments up and running. The rest of us were all mechanics, so I assumed we would figure it out.”
As an example, when FCR started, frame repairs were sublet.
“It was mainly because I had been told it’s impossible to find techs who understand that side of it,” Fitzgerald said. “It took us about six months to make the decision to buy our own equipment, because subbing out the frame repair was adding two weeks to every repair waiting to get it into the frame specialist shops.”
After doing some research, FCR selected Bee Line frame correction equipment.
“The decision to go with them had a lot to do with the fact that they offered training, and I definitely needed that. I had also heard a lot of feedback about how well their system worked,” Fitzgerald said. “A lot of the other tools, we have had to custom build in-house. You can’t really go out and buy hood dollies, platforms and cab-alignment systems like we needed, so we just built them.”
FCR uses Mitchell TruckEst for estimating, with all repairs done by book hours. There are no OEM-certified repair programs – let alone OEM repair manuals – available.
“In the heavy-duty world, you really don’t have repair manuals or recommended repair processes like you do in automotive. I found it very helpful to tour the OEM’s manufacturing plant so that the team and I could have a good understanding of how they were put together from the factory. Other than that, it was a learning curve of what works best and what not to do. Honestly, the first trucks took us over 90 days to repair as we were going through the learning process.”
FCR’s painters spray Axalta Coating Systems’ Imron, supplied by Keystone Automotive in Nashville.
“Our rep, Gary Fryer, has been excellent to work with and is a lot of the reason we continue to use Axalta products,” Fitzgerald said. “They have always been good to help keep our team informed on the latest products and training available through their suppliers.”
More uptime for truckers means more money on the table
The industry average of the time that heavy-duty trucks are down for repairs ranges from 30 to 50 days, Fitzgerald said. But his shops have been able to cut that time to a fraction of that, completing many repairs within a week, and some even within the same day.
The key, he said, is having a staff of 130 employees with roughly 20 different skill specializations, including estimating, frame repair, interiors, wiring, dash replacement, panel replacement, computer diagnostics, engines, parts, and detail and cleanup. As many as six team members may work on a truck at once, and there are additional specialists for recovery and transportation. Altogether, Fitzgerald figures there are about 20 different employee categories. The shops work four 10-hour shifts.
“Where most shops use only a few different techs on a project, it really limits the amount of touch time they book on a car,” he said. “With our setup, we can book more touch time, because we can have as many as six techs on one job. The other advantage we have is a strong team of parts specialists who bring the parts to the tech so they can get a full 10 hours in.”
FCR keeps an inventory of more than $2 million in OEM parts from Landmark International and the Premier Truck Group.
“We own all our parts and don’t carry anything on consignment. We looked at doing a deal with parts on consignment, but ultimately, we decided it was a much cleaner process to manage our own inventory, rather than trying to manage someone else’s. Our vendors have been great to work with, and they go above and beyond in their parts delivery and getting us what we need in a timely manner.”
The company later started repairing International and Peterbilt trucks in a Sparta, Tenn., facility. But it recently moved those operations to a new 70,000-square-foot facility in the same 35-acre industrial park in Livingston that is also home to the 100,000-square-foot Freightliner repair shop and a 70,000-square-foot trailer repair shop. The shops currently average more than 21 trucks per week, and in some months deliver more than 115 trucks. FCR still repairs a large number of U.S. Xpress trucks, along with other large fleets, including Covenant, Marten, and Swift.
Trucks are often towed in from around the country
FCR does not have any DRP agreements. In fact, most large fleets are self-insured, Fitzgerald said, and FCR’s quick turnaround time means trucks can get back on the road more quickly, which means less cost, even when factoring a similar door rate and the towing time and bill.
“Most fleets are hesitant about the tow bill at first, so we normally work a special deal on the first couple trucks so that we can show our capabilities and value. I would never expect anyone to do anything other than what’s best for their own company. If the value isn’t there for them to use our model for all trucks, then we encourage them to use us for the trucks that make sense.
“Some fleets have a very high utilization rate and need all their trucks producing instead of sitting at shops for long periods of time. Others may have extra trucks sitting around and can afford to wait. Our experience has been that most fleets start out sending us the trucks that are close, and then after seeing the difference and figuring up the downtime cost we eventually end up getting the majority, if not all, of their wrecks.”
Another value proposition is that industry-wide, fleets often need to increase the numbers of trucks and trailers in their fleet to account for a certain percentage of them that are not roadworthy at any given time. Offering quicker repairs can change this for some fleets, Fitzgerald said.
“In many cases, we can cut that number down to a third of what they normally have in shops. This allows them to better utilize the assets they have and in some cases could even present the opportunity to purchase fewer units, if they don’t have to count on having as many down.”
Scaling up to reach additional markets
FCR recently opened a new facility in Davis, Oklahoma, which is similar in scope and function to its Livingston facility.
“As a starting point, we plan to specialize in Freightliner trucks and then expand that, depending on the level of support we get from other vendors. We chose Davis because it was within a couple hours of major markets, but still far enough away that it would be considered a rural area. We have had really good luck in our current location in finding a strong workforce in a rural area, and we hope to have the same luck in the Davis area.”
