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The Skinny: Alcoa's sales team relied on real-life stories to sell the merits of its truck wheels. These one-page testimonials demonstrate the significant benefits operators gain from using Alcoa's products.

Style: Conversational, results-oriented

Excerpt:

Wheels that save on cost and maintenance are valuable, no question. Add increased safety to the package and you have something even more important - peace of mind.

Jason McCorkle, maintenance supervisor for Savage Services Corporation, has seen first-hand what heavy loads can do to a tractor-trailer wheel. And his fleet of 24 trucks and 22 trailers see some of the heaviest loads around - roughly 5,100 total tons of waste coal, fly ash and limestone are hauled each day.

"With normal use, a wheel can go about 300,000 miles before it [the rim flange area of the wheel] begins wearing," McCorkle says. "With our heavy loads and fly ash, we often see wear at 40,000 miles."

Since each truck in Savage's fleet runs about 3,500 miles per week, durable wheels are a necessity to keep maintenance costs low. And Dura-Flange® wheels help cut Savage's maintenance time dramatically.

"Before we started using Dura-Flange® wheels, we spent a half hour in labor on each wheel every time we serviced the tires, which is anywhere between 40,000 and 75,000 miles. We'd have to grind the two lips on the outer rim in preparation for the tire," McCorkle says. "With the Dura-Flange® wheels, replacing a tire is now a five-minute job because there's no wear on the rim to begin with."

And when McCorkle says, "there's no wear to begin with," he means it. So far, Savage's trucks have run close to 400,000 miles with Dura-Flange® wheels without any required maintenance.

"We just clean the dirt off, do a quick visual inspection, and go," McCorkle says.

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