If you were going to stock commercial upfitted trucks and wanted to know the best trucks to stock, here is a good way to get started. Find one of the busiest highways near your dealership and take a couple hours two or three time in a week and watch traffic.

I suggest that you take a notepad and on the left side top to bottom, name the types of bodies that are pretty common, such as, service body, flatbed, stakebed, van body, cargo van, dump body, crane body, contractor body, plumber style body, etc. Get a comfortable chair and as vehicles drive by, when you see a commercial truck, put a mark next to the body on your sheet.

When you are done, tabulate the results and this would be a great mix of vehicles to start with. This isn't scientific, but it is very effective. I've seen a number of dealers who stock items in quantity that you see few of on the road and also stock few things when there are plenty on the road. Obviously, the ones on the road have been purchased from someone. We can just call this the market.

If you take the time to analyze even more closely, you could then improve your mix to insure that you have the right mix of single rear wheel, the right mix of bed length, colors, styles and so on. You could even take quick photos of each truck, then look at the photos.

I did this yesterday for only about 5 minutes on busy Interstate 80 and saw 10 service bodies, 3 van bodies, 4 cargo vans, 2 crane bodies, 2 contractor bodies, 3 flatbeds/stakebeds, and 2 plumber style trucks. Interesting. As you pay attention to what is already on the road, this will help you stock better levels and mix of inventory to maximize sales. This would be the core stock. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fairfield Chevrolet-Isuzu Truck of Fairfield, CA just received their first new Reading Aluminum CSV unit all the way from Reading, PA via ship through. The rack is a Reading rack, but was shipped loose for local installation due to height on the transport.

And a sweet unit this is! The body is so much lighter (up to 45% lighter than steel counterpart), that here is the best news about this type of rig: You can legally carry 2,900 lbs. in this unit! That is huge! It is only a 9,900 lb. GVWR unit. That means that this unit weighs in at only 6,500 lbs. That is incredible and so useful to the industry.

When you open the doors, you notice right away that they feel different. They are light, yet sturdy. You really notice it on the normally heavy rear doors. The single point slam latches operate very nicely and the doors shut easily with one hand. This unit is barely higher than a standard cargo van and only a very small amount wider, so wherever you can take a cargo van, you can take this unit.

This unit was ordered with all of the options available which includes electric locks with a key fob to lock and unlock all the compartment doors, compartment lighting system throughout, back-up alarm, hitch and plug, aluminum ladder rack, and cargo netting.

Top notch work from Reading Truck Body. This particular unit was secured through a Reading authorized distributor, West Coast Truck Equipment in West Sacramento, CA. Contact Reading directly at 800-458-2226 and visit their website at www.readingbody.com. You can contact West Coast Truck Equipment at 916-376-0690 and visit their website at www.westcoasttruckequipment.com.

 

 

 

Overloading trucks began pretty much with the advent of the truck and it continues to this day.

 

The sky's the limit?

 

 

Jamie 

 

 

People love and hate them.

How cool is that!

 

John & Edward 

 

 

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