Ford Motor Co. is looking to improve its commercial vehicle operations for its Ford Pro dealers through more robust service offerings.
Ford added 2,000 service stalls last year, 50% of the number the company ultimately wants to add, and will add more technicians to the Ford Pro commercial division, Ford Motor Chief Executive Jim Farley said during the Wolfe Research Auto, Auto Tech and Semiconductor Conference on Feb. 11.
“We have to attract the technicians … to get 20% of our profit for Pro coming from service and software,” he said. “We’re now into the real nitty gritty of building the capacity on after sales in our specialty dealers.”
Ford has 700 dealers devoted to Ford Pro commercial rather than traditional retail, so they focus on a select lineup and aftersales, Farley said.
“It’s a really good [barrier] because it’s hard for someone else to do,” he said. You need to put the technicians in, get the trucks hired and get people out there repairing vehicles in parking lots … but Ford knows how to do this.”
Reducing costs, improving warranty
Ford has also developed four to five work streams to reduce costs, with some of those targets directly affecting dealers, Chief Financial Officer Sherry House said during the conference.
“For example, in warranty, some of the things that we’re looking at is our dealer costs,” she said. “We’re looking at ways that we can improve our repair times.”
Some of the ways Ford looks to improve repair times are through improved customer service communications with dealerships and more over-the-air software updates, House said. Last year, excessive hardware replacements instead of over-the-air updates led to high costs for Ford and Ford dealers.
Additionally, warranty resolutions took up to three times longer than industry benchmarks, House said. To address these issues, Ford’s implemented plans for improvement in the first half of the year.
Ford Pro has nearly reached 700,000 software subscribers, Farley said.
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