Heavy Duty Trucking, March 2020

TD Truck Dealer of the Year 2020 rizon and it is not known when they are going to hit most of our customers Specing trends As far as specing the vehicles we currently have on the roads all the Dealer of the Year nominees cited safety and fuel economy as trends Safety related items like crash mitigation systems are gaining popularity Mitchell says Fleets are very interested in safety features and are more willing to spec them on their trucks Safety has taken off Wilson says Several of the nominees say that in the past fleets would ask to have some options omitted to save money Horton says he is not seeing that today In fact he says people are asking us to make sure these safety items are on the truck when we spec it out for them In addition to safety fuel efficiency seems to be on the minds of many fleets Most customers are continually looking at the fuel efficiency of the truck Bland says They know that fuel has been declining in price but it also is a commodity and will go back up By specing for fuel efficiency they will have a piece of equipment that two years from now will be fuel efficient and help them if fuel prices increase Bringing service to customers Specing a truck is only one part of dealerships offerings Many fleets turn to dealers for some or all of their service needs Dealers are reacting to fleets needs by making changes to their service operations Mobile service is one area that is seeing widespread growth among dealers Bland says several years ago customers expressed a need for on site service and the dealership responded by designing vehicles specifically to go on site and perform service The trucks were outfitted with lubes fluids lights and safety items Nominees Tim Mitchell President Kenworth of Pennsylvania Carlisle Pennsylvania Kenworth Scott Pearson President Peterbilt of Atlanta Jackson Georgia Peterbilt We were specific that we were not going to do heavy maintenance Bland explains It was going to be light maintenance and PMs everything else would be fit into the dealerships shop schedule This part of Transources business continues to grow and today the dealership has nine mobile maintenance trucks performing on site repairs and maintenance across North Carolina Peterbilt of Atlanta has a fleet of 18 mobile service trucks According to Pearson half of the trucks are embedded at major fleet locations and the other half are assigned a different location every day We send a tech to the fleets place of business or where the truck is as long as it is not broken down on the side of the road and do the repairs We feel we can shave two days of downtime off a repair by eliminating a customer bringing the truck in to us Leveraging relationships The Dealer of the Year nominees had some advice for fleets on ways to get the most out of their relationships with their Thomas Lance Wilson General Manager General Truck Sales Service Memphis Tennessee Volvo dealers Horton says fleets and dealers need to act as partners We are going to partner with you to help you lower your expenses and keep your trucks on the road and running Bland encourages fleets to take advantage of any training their dealers offer There are benefits to the fleets when the dealers come in and conduct training Honesty and open lines of communication are the keys to any business relationship according to Mitchell That is no different for a relationship between a fleet and a dealer We have to talk We have to understand what you need That is the only way we will be able to fix things and get done what needs to be done Wilson agrees with the need for open communication Just let us know what is on your mind We are not perfect but we strive for perfection every day Communicate with us and let us know what we can do to help you I dont think you are going to find anyone that is going to try harder to meet your needs Pearson wants fleets to trust his dealership We always want to do the right thing I am not saying we dont make mistakes but we want to do the right thing If fleets give us some leeway trust us and work with us we can make it right We are prognosticating a lot of advances in technology different ways to move a truck but none of that seems to be proven yet Scott Pearson HDT MARCH 2020 70 WWW TRUCKINGINFO COM