The new professionals
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With LDV consigned to the history books, truck dealers are turning to Fiat as their add-on van franchise of choice.
Words: Steve Banner Truck dealers anxious to add a van franchise to their portfolio could do a lot worse than talk to Fiat Professional, the Italian manufacturer's light commercial vehicle division.
Already represented by outlets signed to Iveco and DAF, it hopes to boost its total of specialist light commercial dealerships from 57 to 80 by 2012.
To help achieve this target. it will be more than happy to add more truck dealerships to its network.
Fiat Professional UK director Gerry Clarke stresses that recruiting 23 dealers over the next two-and-a-half years is something of a utopian aspiration.That is because quality remains far more important to the company than quantity.
It will only appoint additional outlets if it is convinced they are capable of bringing positive long-term benefits to the franchise and
its customers, he says. It will not sign up those who are not. "As a consequence," he adds -we're not anticipating
that it will be easy to fill all our open points. In fact, we recently turned down two applicants."
Fiat Professional will be filling a couple of open points during the next two months, though, boosting its current 70% to 80% geographic coverage of the UK and edging it slightly closer to its 2012 goal.
As things stand, more than half the company's specialist dealers are truck dealers too, as opposed to car outlets. "Eighteen are with Iveco, our sister company, and 15 are with DAF," Clarke reveals, Iveco dealerships that hold the Fiat Professional franchise include Guest Trucks and North East Truck and Van, while DAF outlets that have signed up include Adams Morey. Ford & Slater and Watts.
Technical knowledge Many DAF dealers held the
LDV franchise for historic reasons and will be looking for something to plug the gap in their portfolio left by the manufacturer's demise.
Fiat Professional, of course, can offer a more comprehensive range than LDV ever did.
Truck dealers appeal to Fiat Professional because of their aftersales capabilities; their workshops open early and close late; and often even keep working round the clock. "As a result, only the MercedesBenz network has more workshop hours available for light commercial operators than we do," claims Clarke.
Another advantage truck outlets have is their technical knowledge. Requests for a specialised tipper body or a dual-compartment fridge van are unlikely to stump them in the way they might stump some car dealers that dabble in vans.
Clarke and his colleagues may also be hoping to benefit from the contacts many truck dealers have with big fleet operators.
Fiat Professional is extremely keen to increase its fleet penetration in both the public and the private sector — it already lists the Royal Mail, BT and Centrica as customers — and to that end has set up a direct sales team.
Demanding standards
Assuming that a truck dealer already has suitable premises. the initial level of investment required to set up a Fiat Professional dealership is not that high. Clarke says.
"It's around £12,000 to cover the cost of items such as special tools and the necessary software." he reveals.
To that, however, has to be added the cost of stocking vehicles and setting up a fleet of demonstrators.
Technicians and sales staff also have to be trained and dealers have to allocate a budget for marketing activities.
Specialist light CV dealers are not the only ones handling the Fiat van range. The 57 referred to earlier form the core of a total of 157 sales outlets and 221 service and parts dealerships.
If you are designated as a specialist, however, you are expected to commit to more demanding standards than an ordinary dealer, especially with regards to demonstrator availability and workshop opening hours. •