Commercial vehicle dealers are adapting to increased demand for maintenance and other services at their fleet customers’ sites.
These mobile solutions use technology and logistics to enhance speed and efficiency for fleet operators, driven partly by customers’ growing expectations of fast and digital services.
Reflecting this, roughly 90% of fleet customers at Charlotte, N.C.-based Hendrick Automotive Group never come to the dealership, Director of Fleet and Commercial Rene St. Hilaire said today during the Commercial Vehicle Business Summit, a virtual event hosted by Work Truck Solutions. On-site maintenance and repairs is one mobile solution Hendrick offers to meet this demand and generate aftermarket revenue, he said.
“We’re starting to build our mobile service department,” he said.
“We’re also doing detail, because we found that a lot of the fleet customers park their vehicles and before they hit the road in the morning, they want those things clean.”
— Rene St. Hilaire, Hendrick Automotive Group
Offering mobile service is crucial for dealers because they often gain most of their customers during the sales process and “lose most in service,” Peter Spitzer, commercial and fleet account manager at Ron Du Pratt Ford, said during the event.
“How do you gain [customers] from service? This is the way you do it,” he said. “This is how you wow the customer. … We’ve seen our techs’ proficiency — our transmission techs, our engine techs, our master techs — go way up since we’ve introduced our mobility department. We have seven [service] vans, and we did over 700 experiences last month.”
Using mobile units for simple repairs also frees up more advanced technicians to work on extensive repairs at the shop, increasing efficiency for the dealership and customer, Spitzer said.
Role of telematics
As more dealers provide mobile service at their customers’ sites, fleet owners can use telematics — the collection and transmission of data to outside entities — to identify necessary repairs and make more informed decisions, Jennifer Costabile, general director of marketing and sales enablement at GM Envolve, said during the event.
“You don’t have to be a fleet of 1,000 to need telematics to effectively manage your fleet,” she said. “So, we can help customers determine when maintenance is needed, when to keep vehicles and when is the best resale value for it. … So, mobility takes a lot of different turns.”
Using data for these decisions not only helps businesses manage their fleets but also boosts residual values, benefiting OEMs, dealers and lenders, Costabile said.
The third annual Equipment Finance Connect at the JW Marriott Nashville in Nashville, Tenn., on May 14-15, 2025, is the only event that brings together equipment dealers and lenders to share insights, attend discussions on crucial industry topics and network with peers. Learn more about the event and register here.
