Mercedes ServiceCard: it makes life much easier for the MeisterWerke drivers

Service

Masterpiece.

At MeisterWerke, people prefer to take care of things themselves, delivering most of their floor coverings, panels and mouldings using their own trucks with the Mercedes ServiceCard* on board.

Joachim Aust’s office is like a box seat in a theatre. Through his front windows he looks straight down into the entrance to the MeisterWerke dispatch hall. The company produces parquet flooring, laminate, panels and mouldings – all top quality, in the small town of Meiste in the Sauerland region. From there they transport a large proportion of the finished products in the company’s own trucks to specialist retailers throughout Germany, the Benelux countries and Switzerland. One of them is now parked right outside the “box seat” and is waiting to enter the hall.

“I always need to be wherever the action is,” says Aust. As fleet manager, he is in charge of 26 Actros and four Sprinter vans, as well as their drivers and dispatchers. Why does a medium-sized construction materials manufacturing company have its own trucks?

Down in the dispatch hall, Aust explains. In addition to Euro pallets, smaller cardboard boxes and five-metre-long parcels are awaiting transportation. “Our freight comes in different dimensions and is damage-prone, which makes transportation a complex operation. This is why we do a lot ourselves.

What makes his fleet different from others? Aust shows us, referring to the Actros 2545 that has received permission to enter. The truck’s superstructure carries a cantilevered arm system, and the trailer is fitted with locking bars – both were developed largely by the fleet manager himself, and they are fitted to all his trucks. This ensures that freight items that cannot be stowed snugly can still be secured firmly, and it also gives the drivers – who serve up to 25 customers during one trip – easy access to the different pieces of freight.

“We drive Mercedes trucks because they are reliable.”

– Joachim Aust

Making use of smart solutions.

While some 650 employees at MeisterWerke tend to work things out themselves, they do appreciate other people’s smart solutions – like the Mercedes ServiceCard. “We have been using it since 2002, both for our commercial vehicles and the Mercedes cars which are driven by our field staff,” says Joachim Aust.

He believes the biggest benefit is that the vehicles are able to refuel just by presenting the Mercedes ServiceCard at more than 50 000 diesel service stations throughout Europe, with more being added all the time.

“We drive Mercedes trucks because they are reliable,” says the fleet manager. If a breakdown does happen, the Mercedes ServiceCard makes it easier to deal with it: with rapid access to Service24h, and guaranteed payment at the workshops. In addition, MeisterWerke also uses the card for refunds of value added and mineral oil tax incurred abroad, and to pay toll fees. This helps the drivers focus on their primary job.

Whether it is Lindura wooden flooring, long-life parquet or laminate, about 900 customers order from MeisterWerke in Germany alone. For about 600 of them, the company takes care of the deliveries, usually once a week, and for some of them twice a week. “The customer knows that the Meister truck will arrive on Wednesdays at 10 o’clock. It’s almost like the public bus service,” says Aust. “We regard our drivers as our second line of field representatives.”

They only use outside transport companies for more straightforward consignments, like full loads made up of pallets. Conversely, the fleet manager and his team also operate as freight forwarders themselves: by carrying freight for other companies, to use their trucks to full capacity. Joachim Aust: “These are often companies in the timber industry like ourse lves, whose products are just as demanding in terms of transportation as ours.”