We’re All in This Together

Hello everyone.

We’re living in a troubling time. The rapid spread of coronavirus, or COVID-19, has led to vast changes in how the nation and the world currently operate. I don’t need to tell you that this is unprecedented. Let me reassure you that Fullbay is operating as normal, with all functions available. We built the company to withstand a time like this, and are well-prepared to support the industry for many, many years to come.

In this difficult time, it is encouraging to see how people are coming together to help each other.

We see doctors staying at hospitals around the clock, schools providing lunches to children who otherwise might not eat, and commercial vehicles working nonstop to keep essential supplies moving around our communities and across the country.

And when I’ve spoken with our customers, I’ve heard that some shops are busier than ever doing their part to keep fleets safe and on the road, while others are seeing a decline in business.

THE SUPPLY CHAIN

The reality is you can’t just shut down the entire world for months.

It’s physically impossible. People need to eat. They need medicine. Much of the country doesn’t have months of supplies stockpiled. They don’t have the space, they can’t afford it, or both.

This is why it’s more important than ever that the supply chain remains unbroken.

You’ve all seen the news stories about the initial rush on things like toilet paper, bottled water, and bread. Newscasters have an endless supply of video featuring stores with empty shelves.

There’s one way to fill those shelves: trucks.

Those outside our industry don’t always realize that goods don’t just magically appear on shelves. A truck brought them there, whether it picked them up at the docks, an airport, or a manufacturer or farmer.

Truckers keep this country fed, healthy, and entertained when all is well. They’re still keeping it fed, healthy, and entertained; transport of food and other necessary supplies has been classified as an essential service, so drivers keep climbing up into their big rigs day in and day out, crossing state lines and making deliveries that are ever more crucial.

The industry is banding together to support its road warriors and the rest of the country. While you should check the CDC’s COVID-19 page, know that the ATA also keeps a frequently updated hub of COVID-19 information. It’s got all the information truckers and their support teams need to make successful deliveries, including lists of rest stops & parking closures, weight limit changes, and CDL expiration date extensions. If you’re an ATA member, you can even attend weekly webinars presented by ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello to better understand how COVID-19 is impacting the industry and the supply chain.

It took some time, but I’ve noticed that America is waking up to the importance of truck drivers and their steel steeds.

BEHIND THE CHAIN

Trucks don’t just run infinitely on their own. The U.S. may be thankful to truckers for their outstanding work, but there’s another, equally important layer of workers behind everything they do: the repair shops who keep the big rigs running.

Your repair shops.

We’re thrilled that truckers are getting so much positive press, but we want to pull back the curtain on how crucial the mechanics are to the entire supply chain. Without them, those trucks wouldn’t be running. The drivers would have nothing to drive. There would be no medicines delivered to hospitals. No food delivered to stores. It’s this very reason that your shops have also been declared an essential critical infrastructure workforce.

At Fullbay, we’ve known from the beginning how important heavy-duty repair is to keeping our country running – it’s why I co-founded this company and it has led us to help shops of all sizes across North America.

DOING OUR PART

We’re all in this together and we want to do our part to help. As a small business ourselves, our main concern is the health and safety of our employees, and continuing to provide the same level of support and development that our customers have come to expect. To that end, we’ve taken precautions to ensure that we’ll achieve both of those goals during this trying time.

But even with these efforts, we want to do more.

Teddy Roosevelt once said, “Rhetoric is a poor substitute for action … We must not merely talk; we must act big.”

With that in mind, we’re here to help. We need to keep fleets on the road, and your shops are how that will happen – so we need to keep you operating better and faster than ever. That’s what we’re continuing to work toward, and you can expect to see even more improvements and features coming down the pipeline.

If you have any concerns, please bring them to us. Our commitment to you is that we’ll find a way to make Fullbay and your shop as successful as possible while we get through this together.

We believe in repair shops. We believe in the trucking industry. We believe in humanity and its ability to do good, and we will continue to work to make the lives of shops and truckers better in every way that we can.