Now That's Dedication

Here's a great illustration of true dedication from a member of the extended Centric Parts family. Robert Geist, a member of the sales force at Parts Authority in Phoenix just got in touch to share the news that he had recently received his new personalized license plates. The new Arizona plate proudly reads, "Centric."

How cool is it to work for a company that makes distributors want to advertise your name on their personalized license plate? We see this kind of dedication from our employees and sales force in many different ways, but this being a distributor, we were truly humbled and we had to share.

Apparently Robert has been a longtime believer in Centric and its products, being known to wear a Centric cap wherever he goes. The new license plate really shows how deep-seated his dedication is. It's flattering, but not really surprising, to see this level of enthusiasm for Centric Parts products. Once they've tried Centric, it's hard to get people to switch to anything else!

Centric Helps San Jose Fire Department Find Better Solutions

Recently, we participated in a Public Fleet Supervisors (PFSA) meeting in Northern California.  We met City of San Jose, CA Fleet Manager Dan Sunseri. The very next day, Dan reached out to us and our distributor, asking if we would visit the shop to help locate front brakes for a “brush truck.”

Dan’s fleet had six 1988 F150 2wd pickups that were having some braking issues. Closer inspection of the vehicles revealed that the trucks had been fitted with Marmon Harrington front axles. Prior repairs had never been an issue for Dan because Marmon had plenty of spares, but now they could no longer get replacement brake parts for this obsolete front axle. It looked like the only solution was to change the entire axle on each vehicle at a cost of about $6,000 apiece!

Photos were provided to Centric’s Tech Line to see if there was possibly a better solution. The rotors and calipers were then shipped down to Centric for a closer look. Rotors were quickly located so the only issue was going to be the calipers. After a lot of research it was determined that these units could not be rebuilt as they were a non North American application. That’s when Tech got to work finding a suitable alternative.

After further exhaustive research, it was determined that the calipers in question were identical to ones being used on a German SUV.  Replacements were shipped back up and installed on one of the trucks for testing. Rocco Capossele (San Jose Equipment Maintenance Supervisor) says they are very happy with the solution.

Now the remaining fire trucks will be able to be kept in service, saving the city thousands of dollars.