"Offering full service expanded our tyre service business"

Schäfer Reifen, Germany

„We saw how important it was to our EM customers, that they could simply just leave a vehicle, and focus on their own production, without having to coordinate assistance or support vehicles for the tyre service.“

Family business with several legs

For a local based family company, Schäfer Reifen has grown continuously since Rudolf Schäfer took part in establishing the business in 1975. The growth has not stopped after second generation, Rolf Schäfer, took over. Additional car service booths, new IT system and storage with room for more than 15.000 car and truck tyres.

However, the professional market for onsite service is an important part of the business. With 3 mobile service vans, professional customers and quarries are serviced within a radius of 250 km in Trier, Rheinland-Pfalz, Saarland und Luxemburg. An important investment has been made also in this business area.

Full service

“We saw how important it was to our EM customers, that they could simply just leave a vehicle, and focus on their own production, without having to coordinate assistance or support vehicles for the tyre service” Rolf Schäfer explains – “So with our latest service vehicle, the Easy Gripper mounted on our own loader, allows us to offer a full onsite service, without any assistance from customer”

The investment has now, less than a year later, shown positive results. The customers are happy, employees are working independently onsite in a safe and efficient way. And the ability to offer “full service” has already brought in a new Quarry that are now serviced fully by Schäfer Reifen.

The Easy Gripper

The tool that made this possible for Schäfer Reifen is a specialized tyre attachment developed by Just Easy Tools in Denmark. It fits on to forklifts, loaders and truck cranes, and handles EM and OTR tyres up to 8 tons – depending on the configuration.

With a unique 3 point grip, it grips and holds the large tyre, even under narrow mudguards, and manipulates the tyres as needed: Tilts from lying to upright, moves up and down and even rotates when the bolts needs to be aligned.

A camera placed right in the center allows the driver to easily aligning the bolts by rotating the tyre, as well as it adds visibility and safety while maneuvering with a tyre.

“Although we can work both independently and more efficiently now, using the Easy Gripper, quality and safety goes ahead of saving time, when working with these sizes of tyres and machines. Both for the safety of our employees and for our customers” Rolf Schäfer sums up.