Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 25, 1993 TAG: 9306250128
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LEIGH ALLEN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
That means, said the executive vice president and general manager of Truck Enterprises Roanoke Inc., being open if they want to get their oil changed at 4 o'clock in the morning.
"We got the idea from our customers," said Quinn, who operates a heavy-truck dealership and service center on Peters Creek Road.
"Trucking is a 24-hour business. If a truck should happen to break down at night, we can save the customer money because he'll be down for a lot less time."
Truck Enterprises said it will become on July 6 the first heavy-truck dealer in the valley to offer service around the clock, five days a week. Quinn said midnight truckers will be able to choose from a full menu of truck maintenance service - from air in their tires to a new engine.
The dealership will start out with three mechanics and a parts manager working the graveyard shift, midnight to about 8 a.m. Quinn said he plans to expand his work force as demand for the service grows. He hopes within a year to add as many as 10 employees to the company's staff of 42.
Truck dealers say the maintenance business is sometimes a tough niche to fill because they must compete with large shipping companies that keep their own maintenance garages scattered along their routes.
Quinn said Truck Enterprises does limited work for those fleets - mainly engine overhauls and other complex jobs that the companies' mechanics aren't equipped to handle.
Truck service departments such as Quinn's are more popular with independent truckers who pull over their rigs for repairs wherever or whenever it's convenient.
Monty Webber is an independent trucker with a home near Fort Payne, Ala., who often carries building and medical supplies along the East Coast. He said knowing about Truck Enterprises will make him feel more secure driving through the area.
"That's one of those things that you might never have to use, even if you knew it was right there," Webber said. "But that one time you need it, boy it better be there."
Truckers gathered at Truckstops of America in Troutville on Wednesday said the major advantage of a 24-hour service center is not the late-night emergency service, which no trucker ever wants to use, but the prospect of having his truck back on the road in less time.
Most long-distance truckers operate on tight schedules, delivering goods expected and needed at specific days and times.
Quinn said mechanics working around the clock can get a truck fixed more than twice as fast as at a shop with traditional business hours. He said that's important to truckers, who can't make money when their rigs aren't running.
It's becoming a national trend for both truck and automobile dealers to offer extended hours, although it seems to have caught on with heavy trucks more than with cars, according to Don Hall of the Virginia Automobile Dealers Association.
"Some of our more progressive dealers are opening on Saturdays for half a day," Hall said. But he doesn't think any car dealers in the Roanoke area will offer 24-hour service anytime soon.
by CNB