Screen Saving: Truckers sold on innovative buy & sell site

TORONTO — If you’ve ever bought a tractor or trailer in this country, you’ve probably come across Truck & Trailer or Truck & Trailer West. They’re Canada’s leading heavy-duty truck and trailer buy-and-sell magazines and they’re published by Newcom Business Media, the same company that publishes Today’s Trucking.

You may have also seen their website in the past, which listed Truck & Trailer’s immense inventory of heavy trucks and trailers online.

Last month, Truck & Trailer launched an all-new, state-of-the-art website called www.TruckandTrailer.ca. You may have seen a banner of it at the bottom of the homepage on this website. If you haven’t, be sure to check it out.

Why? Well, it’s arguably the most cutting-edge buy-and-sell site for the commercial industry, offering everything from free ads for a simple single-unit listing to fully hosted dealer websites with powerful features such as full inventory listings and the unique TruckandTrailer Picture Viewer.

When used, the Picture Viewer will allow potential buyers the option to zoom in on a photo, or watch a 360-degree slideshow of the truck or trailer being sold. The zoom function is like nothing you’ve seen before. You can literally zoom in to clearly see a rock stuck in a tire’s tread — and that’s just on a basic 2 megapixel image. That in itself is worth a visit.

In addition, TruckandTrailer.ca gives dealers easy-to-use ways to market their inventory. Not only can you upload your entire inventory from your computer to this, you have the option of building your very own unique dealer website, even if you don’t know the first thing about web design or programming.

The feature is called “Site Builder” and it walks you through every step of the process, starting with choosing a design and finishing with typing in your own custom content.

Your new website will have an Internet address, so can you put the website on a business card and show it off to customers, and the inventory already uploaded is encapsulated within the new website automatically.

When it comes to a consumer’s perspective, the site really shines. The huge inventory is updated constantly. There is a standard search box, an advanced search, and a quick search, which features the most popular search phrases, searched at the click of the mouse.

That said, how well does it work? TruckandTrailer.ca makes life easy, with great searches, a massive inventory that will have stock in your neighborhood, and the option to save your favorite searches through your customer profile.

Did we mention the profile? Customers and dealers are able to set up a profile through a feature called MyTruckandTrailer.ca which will give them their own Control Panel for customizing their user experience with TruckandTrailer.ca. That’s something you’d be hard pressed to find anywhere else.