Icahn Automotive Group LLC today announced the launch of Pep Boys Fleet, a program that puts a renewed focus on automotive service designed to better meet the needs of today’s growing fleets. With a new tagline, “Driving your business forward,” Pep Boys Fleet will continue to serve as a preferred partner to large, national fleet management companies and with this move is now better-positioned to meet the needs of the many small fleets emerging from the explosive growth of transportation network companies and last mile delivery services.

Pep Boys Fleet has the experience to handle any size fleet, providing inspections and warranty-backed repairs, both routine and complex, according to Icahn Automotive. Pep Boys Fleet service, including preventative maintenance such as tires, brakes, batteries and suspension, is done through the Pep Boys national network, which consists of more than 9,000 service bays in more than 1,000 company-owned locations. Pep Boys Mobile Crew, which launched in 2018 with state-of-art trailers, will now expand to include smaller-format fleet vans that are fully equipped with all the necessary supplies and staffed by trained technicians to complete common fleet maintenance and repair needs on-location.

“No matter the size of the fleet, our goal is always to decrease the vehicle’s downtime, ultimately providing a more convenient, flexible and personalized way of addressing repairs and vehicle maintenance,” said Brian Kaner, president of service, Icahn Automotive. “Pep Boys Fleet is the only service provider to be backed by a national network and offer mobile 

maintenance and repairs, as well as provide dedicated fleet team support and solutions designed to both streamline the fleet manager’s role and help an owner focus on the running the business and not the fleet.”

Today 20% percent* of vehicles are sold to fleets, a number that’s expected to shift as high as 40% over the next 20 years as ride-sharing, ride-hailing and online retail continues to grow. As one of the largest, most trusted and widely known aftermarket automotive service providers, Pep Boys Fleet and the company’s trained and certified technicians can work on all makes and models. Changes have been made to the service format in Pep Boys locations to establish dedicated Pep Boys Fleet bays reserved exclusively to expedite fleet jobs, and locations are also being updated to include meeting rooms with amenities where fleet customers can conduct business while their vehicle is undergoing maintenance.

Pep Boys Fleet provides customers with national, regional, local and store-level support where customers receive a single point-of-contact that gets to know them and their business. The Pep Boys Fleet Team representative develops a customized service program and pricing plan and remains engaged to help manage a customer’s fleet business. Pep Boys Fleet also provides customers with a universal fleet services credit card that allows fleet managers to track and pay for vehicle repairs and preventive service and earn rewards. All fleet customers can also take advantage of a specialized online invoicing and payment system and a 24/7 towing program to any Pep Boys location.

Pep Boys Fleet is an official tire, brake and preventative maintenance supplier of Amazon’s Delivery Service Partners (DSP), which provides negotiated pricing for Amazon DSP maintenance, along with a pro rewards program, and fleet credit which owners can use to cover unforeseen expenses. Later this year, Pep Boys plans to launch a management technology solution to help small and mid-size businesses better manage their fleet maintenance.

The launch of Pep Boys Fleet is a continuation of Icahn Automotive’s investments in its service business and follows the announcement of a comprehensive program to recruit and train automotive service technicians to meet the demands of the industry, which are being driven largely by the fleet customer. In addition to launching new service formats such as Mobile Crew, the company continues expanding its footprint in key markets by acquiring both franchised and owned service centers and remodeling existing Pep Boys locations.

Source: https://www.aftermarketnews.com/pep-boys-expands-capabilities-to-serve-fast-growing-fleets/

Any help would be appreciated. 

Fleet management software software I've looked at has little or no capability to properly handle retail customers. Simple things like part markup matrixes, custom labor rates, or creating a customer invoice from a work order may be lacking.

Retail shop software I've looked at has little or no capability to track vehicle expenses critical for fleet management.

A fleet manager needs cost per mile data and weekly overhead cost for individual vehicles. Tracked expenses include fuel, routine maintenance, non-routine maintenance, insurance, depreciation, accidents, registration, loan interest or lease expense, cleaning, logos, communications, etc. It has to show which vehicles have the highest and lowest non-routine maintenance expense and the highest and lowest frequency of on the road break downs. It should give the fleet manager an indication of the optimum time to replace the vehicle. It should also show the percentage of vehicles out of service each day for maintenance.

Trying to run two software solutions, one for the 40 vehicle fleet and one for a couple of daily retail work orders, is extremely difficult as both need to track inventory and scheduling and can't exchange information. It's also expensive to pay for two systems.

Are there any fleet managers here with in-house repair shops who also do some retail work who can give me advice on how to solve this? Or maybe shop owners whose customer base is primarily fleets and part of their value added service is providing fleet mangers with reports to track vehicle expense and down time.

Right now I'm doing 35% mark up for all the filters. And I have 5 fleets of 20-46 trucks. Class 3-6.

I want to keep them coming but don't want to loose to much. Let me know your thoughts.

We recently started to accept fleet accounts/cards as a supplemental to our business. Any advice on how to let the general public/ company drivers know we accept?

We put a sign out front but it's not really attaching must attention.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts and opinions.

Nick

Just wanted some feed back regarding fleet account acceptance. Any experiences / advice?

We are looking to start accepting.

Thanks in advance for your response.

Nick

We do ZERO fleet work. My general outlook on fleet work is that I would be competing against a ton of bottom dollar shops out there and there are just too many people out there that do not understand what quality work is. With that being said I am thinking about how to rearrange a few things in my shop and also add a 6th lift for productivity and efficiency purposes. If and when I do I was thinking why not add a lift capable of working on Sprinters. It is after all sort of a Mercedes LOL and from what I am told I should be able to charge a decent rate for labor and the parts are expensive. If I can attract a few accounts that may see value in a German Car shop servicing their German work vans/trucks I may be able to add some significant dollars.

I'd like to get some input on what I should expect with this also specifically if anyone works on a lot of Sprinters. What payment terms do you set with fleet accounts? Your price on labor and parts comparatively to your normal rate? How fast do they expect turn over?

Thanks in advance.

Dwayne

My background is ASE master tech and factory certified in Audi/Volkswagen Land Rover, Hyundai, GM, Ferrari, and Saturn.

Other than running my current location for the last 11 months i have no business training and very little knowledge of this side of things. To do this contract i would to need to go from 2 Employees to a total of 7 or 8. (the AFB wants us to be open 6 days A week 60 hours total)

I found this website about a month and a half ago and have put a lot of knowledge found into play. Last month after doing so was first month to show any profit and have actually caught up completely from rest of the years losses.