A small family-owned dealership in Christchurch is on top of the world after winning first place in a global service contest.
Heavy Trucks Christchurch, Penske Commercial Vehicles Auckland and Penske Commercial Vehicles Mt Maunganui scored first, third and fifth respectively in the competition to find the best workshops in the Asia-Pacific MAN service network.
Heavy Trucks has won best MAN Dealer in the Asia-Pacific MAN global service quality challenge for the past three years.
Each of the three New Zealand teams in the competition comprised four members across the various service departments such as warehouse, spare parts, customer service, reception, invoicing, after-sales, service contracts, warranty, workshop, diagnosis, and electrics.
The winning Heavy Trucks team included parts account manager Josh Todd, product specialist Leighton Hill, foreman Craig McIntosh and dealer principal Adam Wright.
They beat all other dealers in all regions worldwide outside of Europe and the Middle East.
Wright says no dealership from Australia or New Zealand had previously won the challenge before Heavy Trucks took the title and now it has won it three years in a row.
“I’m very proud of the team,” Wright says.
“We were limited to four in our team but to me, this is something the whole company has earned.
“Across the company, everyone has worked hard to build their knowledge and capabilities to best support our product. I believe all of our team has done a great job for our customers and MAN.
“We run our business in a fashion that is upside down to most dealers, by putting aftersales support first.”
Time off the road is the biggest cost to operators but most don’t measure it, Wright says.
“If our team can correctly diagnose the problem and have the tools and parts to fix it quickly and appropriately, the customer’s truck will be back on the road faster, they will be more profitable and we will sell more vehicles. It seems to be working.
“It’s the most important thing; support is everything. We have invested heavily in training and tooling, and in our people.”
Winning the challenge once was great but being the top dealership for three years in a row is “incredible”, Wright says.
“We believe we are the only dealer in the world to win the award in three consecutive years – it’s a tremendous achievement.”
Team members are excited about their prize, which Wright is keeping under wraps for now.
McIntosh describes his reaction to the win as “happy, excited and proud”.
Todd says winning the first year was great but to back it up with a second win was “awesome”.
Hill says the team was unfortunate not to make it to the final round in Germany.
“But that will make us try harder for the next event. This competition brings the best out of our team at Heavy Trucks and working together to complete a common goal is what we strive for.”
Wright says he’s excited about the future of Heavy Trucks which was founded more than eight years ago when the MAN brand was not a common sight in the South Island.
“We are very lucky to have great products like MAN and Western Star. And we get great support from Penske Commercial Vehicles – even company chairman Roger Penske has visited the dealership.”
The dealership receives many visitors these days, from as far away as Europe and the United States, he says.
“I think they like it because we are a small dealership in a small market but we are doing some cool things.
“It’s all about people and culture. We are also lucky to have some great people on board. We try to keep staff happy and allow them to grow and develop their careers within the company.
“We don’t want people to leave so we have to keep growing the business and training staff so they can grow and develop within Heavy Trucks.
“The best investment our company can make is in our people. Everyone here wants to grow and improve. When we survey staff for feedback after a training session, the most frequent request is for yet more training.”
