Roadranger Reboots

Roadranger Marketing, the product development and support partnership between the truck component divisions of Dana Corp. and Eaton Corp., has revamped its web site to offer easy access to product, service, and warranty information.

The new Roadranger.com, which updates a site Eaton launched in 1995, has links to Dana and Eaton drivetrain product specs, a vast library of Roadranger literature, and updates on products, service bulletins, and parts information via e-mail.

The redesign really focuses on four areas, says Roadranger marketing services manager Don Alles. “The first was product specification — people coming in just trying to find information about Roadranger products. The second was service procedures. People needed to get to our technical documentation.

“The third aspect was the parts business. We enjoy a robust parts business, but it’s been difficult to find parts information. It’s here now, better than ever, and refreshed monthly.”
A fourth aim, Alles adds, was to simplify warranty claims and information.

While the site is a major upgrade, some new features stop short of the border. The Roadranger Store, an e-commerce site, is available in U.S. dollars only. And a feature that lets you print Roadranger literature at Kinkos copy stores is confined to U.S. locations only.

“I hope we have full NAFTA e-commerce capability by the start of 2004,” Alles says. “We’re butting up against some bureaucracy that doesn’t allow us to do business in anything but U.S. dollars.”

He also says Roadranger has embarked on an aggressive translation project to provide literature in French and Spanish.

Use of the site will fuel improvements to it, Alles says. “I couldn’t have gotten approval for this project if I hadn’t been able to demonstrate savings of probably $1.5 million US in documentation costs over the next five years,” he notes. “We’ve already cut our documentation costs by 50 per cent over the past five years.”