Fontaine announced at the TMC Spring Meeting in Tampa, Fla., that it is leveraging its long-established military refurbishing business to offer the Renew flatbed trailer rebuilding program for owner-operators and truck fleets.
Todd Anderson, Renew program vice president and general manager, says Fontaine can do just about anything necessary to turn an old, worn-out flatbed trailer into a completely rebuilt unit with a whole second life ahead of it. “At a glance, you cannot tell a 10-year old Fontaine Renew flatbed from a new one,” Anderson says. “That’s because beyond simply rebuilding old trailers, we offer fleets a large ‘menu’ of options to choose from, including upgrading older technology. We can, for example, replace older, conventional tail lights with new, LED lamps if the fleet chooses to do so.” Moreover, Anderson says, full inspection procedures throughout the rebuilding process insure that safety is always paramount and any rebuild effort is instantly ended should a flatbed candidate prove to be unsafe for rebuilding.
The Renew program is not limited to Fontaine trailers only. Any brand of flatbed trailer is eligible. Anderson says old trailers are brought to the company’s ISO 9001 certified refurbishing facility where they are torn down, cleaned sandblasted and then rebuilt, going through 11 different work stations and a total of 152 fully documented, detailed steps. Typical turnaround time for a rebuilt unit is approximately 60 days.