What repair shops do you use. How do you know whos good and reliable....

I would keep giving the little guy all the work he can handle. Most of these small shops like this put out a quality service for a fair price. I try to never go to a dealership to have anything done. If I need something done to my motor that I can't handle then it goes to a Cat shop, they will also get any transmission and rearend work also. Alignments are done by an alignment shop. Brakes, tires, oil changes, etc are done by me. If your Volvo's have Cummins motors in them find a Cummins shop to work on them.

 

i really am no help to you on this but with a lot of asking around and trying diffrent shops i have had the same problem with the dealer with the wait, the outragious rate and poor repairs. but i found a shop otside of town about 25 miles that has a decent size operation and works and anything i need from service to rebuild and have always got in same day or next morning. never had a return on his work ,very fair on rated and works on my tralor to.
im sure if you keep looking theres still an honest shop capible of doing what you need ,it just may not be as convient as you want but when you can get quality honest work a little out of the way is worth it

 

if it an engine problem i go to cummins

it its an alignment/ suspension issue i have a small shop at home that gets all that

and another small shop that gets the rest

i can't afford the stealer prices and the little shops take better care of me and "know" me
and i like to think maybe the little shops pay their guys better than the dealers

 

I don't know if they pay them more or not, but they typically don't charge ridiculous rates.

 

i do 90% myself. i know its right and i dont overcharge myself.

however some things thats not an option for one reason or another. volvo dealers are netorious for being booked days or weeks out. their dealer network is.real week for their market presence. that and they always seem to be broken down. lol find a network.of smaller shops to wprk with. this.just kind of comes over time from experience and recomendations.

i used to use a shop full of.polish guys over in one of the chicago burbs. they did a ton of volvo work for all them guys over there. i just cant remeber the name of the place right now. good rates and excellent work as long as you dont mind all the hairy 70's porn girl pinups all over

 

If you're ever in Idaho Falls, Idaho check out Tranes Diesel service. They're a fleet pride center for freightliner, but also work on my Kenworths too. They are the best shop I have dealt with in a decade. Example: They did a full shackle pin replacement on the steer axle springs, including removal and reinstallation of the leaf stacks after they tightened the center pins and inspected them. After the job they found a broken radiator mount because they did a thorough inspection. Charge: $340 out the door, parts and labor. The peterbilt shop down the road quoted $1100.

They replaced a cab air bag for me at the drop of a hat, $160 parts and labor, out the door.

I don't even shop for a better price anymore. Competent, affordable.

 

LOL.. I'm writing the book on incompetent repair shops now. I'll let you know when it publishes. What gets me is that I have enough mechanical skill to diagnose and repair most things, but can't be all places all the time. At least I know when I'm getting a line of BS over the phone and stop it right there. Matter of fact, I'm on here browsing for answers at 0400 doing some over the phone work with my son, who's on the side of the road with a total electrical failure. He found a broken battery cable under the hood and bypassed it with jumper cables to get to a t/s for a replacement.

How many trucks do you have? If memory serves you were running around 10? If you have your own yard it might be time to hire your own guy. Even if all they do is PM, tires, and brakes, that will be a big jump on the delays.

I'm about 50/50 on giving the guy you like a commitment on minimum volume. Sounds like he'd still be backed up a while if he expanded, then what? You're still waiting. And as you mentioned, sometimes they break down somewhere else besides home. That said..

References to specific shops won't be a lot of help as you never know where you're gonna need one. What's gotten me the best referral is my network of broker customers. Either they also run a fleet or at least know of some bigger fleets they deal with running in various areas to get a referral for you. That right there saved me $5000 on an in-frame just last month, not to mention the cost of borrowing a rgn rig + OD permits if needed to retrieve my truck 800 miles away.

Aside from that you just have to find these good ones the hard way, and it's rare to find one that's good for more than one thing or another. About the only advice there would be to get your drivers to be more proactive on the pre-trip reports. At the first sign of a problem start routing them to a favored shop before they are on the side of the road and you have to call the closest vulture to come out.