Iveco dealer scoops prestigious award
Page 54

If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• Iveco dealer North East Truck & Van has won the manufacturer's prestigious Advance Dealer of the Year 2001 Award For Aftersales Excellence, "What's more, we came top by a considerable margin," says managing director Sandy McDonald.
The award measures performance in everything from parts purchasing and labour sales vol umes to staff training; IT is one of a string of accolades the Tees sidebased firm has walked off with in recent months.
Its sales and service departments both came top in lveco's 2001 Customer Satisfaction Index. The dealership also picked up Iveco's Best Team Heavy Business Unit award for 2001, as well as the Best Team Used Business Unit prize.
"It's all to do with our company culture, the systems we've got in place to keep us on track, and, above all, the people we employ," says McDonald. "It's about how they respond when there's a problem that needs sorting out."
With sites in Billingham, Immingham, Blaydon, and Carlisle, North East Truck & Van is one of the country's biggest Iveco dealerships. "We sold 2,310 new vehicles last year and 700 used," he says.
The firm is well known for its engineering department. As well as lengthening and shortening chassis, it installs mid-lift and rear axles.
The latest venture is NE TankTech. Founded rz. months ago, it's a specialist road tanker engineering operation. "We can refurbish various types of tank, mount new tanks on chassis, and carry out work to ensure compliance with health and safety regulations," McDonald explains. "We're set up to maintain a tractive unit and a tanker trailer in the same workshop. In fact we can build, refurbish, test, and maintain the whole road tanker package."
NE Tank-Tech is already active at Billingham and Immingham, and the concept could be rolled out to the company's other locations nationwide.
The dealership has already sold well over zo new Stralis units. "We've sold the first retail Stralis in the UK," he says. "We're budgeted to sell more vehicles this year than we did in 20431."