NAPA has been solving problems in Australia’s commercial road transport industry since 2018.
The company — a consolidation of Ashdown-Ingram, Covs, Global Auto Spares and R&E Auto Parts — utilises both a unique array of expertise and a vast supply network to provide solutions for its partners in the form of distributing products.
In this way, NAPA acts as a broker of sorts, creating a bridge between manufacturers and transport operators to achieve success for all parties.
Under this model NAPA has been able to provide ongoing guidance for national logistics giant, Toll Group.
According to NAPA’s Southeast Queensland Industrial Channel Manager, Daniel Coward, the two companies have long enjoyed a fruitful partnership.
“We’ve enjoyed a positive working relationship with Toll for at least six years, probably more,” he says.
“The relationship has predominantly taken the form of NAPA supplying Toll’s workshops with their requirements. This has included a lot of tooling and equipment over the years but has also included other things like workshop consumables. It’s been quite a mixed bag.”
The foundation of this existing partnership proved vital when a safety incident occurred at Toll Group, involving a torque wrench at one of the operator’s workshops, which was made known to Toll’s Head of Fleet Maintenance, Mitch Brooke.
“I was running a program within our workshops before the Brisbane Truck Show to identify general hazards and risks,” he says.
“One of the staff members, who was completing a period of work at one of our regional sites, brought some safety concerns to my attention.”
The concerns in question referred to the regional workshop’s typical process of torquing some 400 wheelnuts between quad roadtrains and their combinations.
The process, which requires two staff members handling a heavy torque wrench, can be something of a gargantuan task. It takes time and energy and is far from risk-free.
Image: NAPA.
“The repetitive movement of the torque wrenches can lead to fatigue, injury, and people generally being in the line of fire,” Mitch continues.
“That’s exactly what our team identified as something we need to overcome.”
Upon identifying the problem to solve, Toll promptly contacted NAPA for a solution.
“When Mitch and the Toll team are looking for equipment solutions, they normally give us an opportunity to have a crack at it first,” Daniel says.
“Given our position in the industry, we were quite well-connected to find what Toll was looking for.”
And NAPA did. Or, rather, it found them, in the form of Norbar’s EvoTorque Battery Tool EBT-C.
Norbar has been manufacturing commercial road transport tools and equipment in the United Kingdom and Australia for decades.
Its introduction to NAPA first came in the form of its parent company, the United-States based Genuine Parts Company (GPC).
“We’ve had a long-term relationship with GPC that has gone back many years,” says Norbar Business Development Manager, Jeff Rosenberg.
“NAPA has always been there by extension, but it’s only quite recently that we’ve been explicitly talking with each other.”
The conversation between the two companies was sparked shortly after the development of the EBT-C, which Norbar thought would pique NAPA’s interest.
While Norbar had similar tools available on the market, its newest version came with some adjustments.
“We’ve had a battery tool for a long time, but a different version of it,” Jeff says.
“Our original, range-topping EBT models are still available — they’ve got more features and higher torque outputs — but those really aren’t needed for this type of application. Because of that, they’re a bit more expensive than the compact version. Since we released the EBT-C, which is priced more competitively but still offers full transducer control, it’s been getting a lot of attention from companies like Toll.”
Norbar’s Cordless EBT-C is a digital torque multiplier, delivering high levels of torque to the wheel nuts of transport units with a built in transducer which controls the tools’ output to the highest level of accuracy.
This torque is then applied to the lug nuts on the wheel of a truck or trailer.
Through this digital process of providing torque, the Norbar Cordless EBT-C has been designed to refine the role of a typical heavy-duty torque wrench, providing a new level of safety to the process, as a result.
“As a digital torque multiplier, this tool removes the physical exertion of the torquing process from the operator,” Jeff explains.
“While you’d usually need two people on a large torque wrench to achieve the high torque, our new tool is a one-person operation only.
“In terms of safety, it greatly reduces fatigue because of its battery power, meaning less manpower is needed. This will prevent taxing movements and staff injuries, and there’s one less person putting themselves at risk entirely.”
The Norbar Cordless EBT-C also provides efficiency gains. In Jeff’s view, the tool allows for a much higher torquing accuracy than that of a large torque wrench, due to the gun’s built-in transducer.
“While on paper, a large torque wrench provides the same amount of accuracy as our Norbar EBT-C, I would suggest our battery-powered tool is actually much more accurate,” he says.
“The tool itself measures torque at all times because of the transducer we’ve built into it, and not many other brands on the market include this in their tool designs. Our level of accuracy is extremely high, and as a result, the torquing process is much faster.”
Upon completion and internal testing of the Norbar EBT-C, Jeff and the Norbar team toured the product at various NAPA sites, thinking the company would be interested in distributing it to one of the many transport partners in its national network.
“We actually didn’t know the tool existed until Norbar showed it to us,” Daniel says.
“It was the perfect tool to solve Toll’s problem. So, we grabbed it immediately and also supplied it to other customers that had similar fleets in the industry, as we anticipated they would have similar issues.”
From there, Mitch and the Toll team got familiar with the product before using it across Toll’s own national workshop network.
“After NAPA showed us this tool, we went through a bit of a discovery session with Norbar,” he says.
“We travelled to their site, had a look, tested it and interacted with the team behind it, too. That gave me a lot of confidence in the torque gun’s ability.
“The timeframe from that testing stage to rollout was pretty quick and seamless. Norbar and NAPA both saw the sense of urgency with our issue due to the safety risk we were trying to curb. They’ve been very helpful, supportive and accommodating.”
In a similar vein, Jeff also found the partnership with NAPA — and by extension, Toll — trouble-free and successful.
“We’ve formed the basis of a great relationship with NAPA,” he says.
“Not only have we sold this product to Toll, but NAPA has also helped with other sales to other important clients, which is fantastic. NAPA has a strong name within Australia, and a pretty big footprint that we’re happy to work within.”
He adds, “This has provided a great foundation for future collaboration.”
