Truck Topics
Alumi-Bunk Has A New Home!
Sheel Advani occupied the Sales Manager position at those locations and he says, "It was evident to us that after its third year in the Woodhaven building, that we had outgrown the location."
"Not only did we want a larger facility, we wanted to give our customers a facility where we could do it all - a true one-stop shop. We wanted to go on to a grand level and increase our services."
"On January 1, 2008, we opened our newest and largest location in Toledo, Ohio, next to the DaimlerChrysler Jeep plant (a location that should be very familiar to many expediters)".
Situated on a 16-acre property, the dealership features an over 65,000 square foot building with a grand lobby to welcome customers, two floors of office space, a sales floor of approximately 20,000 square feet and 33 service bays. Advani explains that the shop is divided into different sections, with bays dedicated to tire repair, oil change, wash and general service.
"We can repair any make, model or style of truck," says Advani. "We will eventually do some production work here, putting van bodies and sleepers together and we will also have a full body shop with a paint booth that can accommodate a full tractor or a complete straight truck. We also have plans to offer fabrication services here to fulfill a customer's desire for custom work."
He continues, "As always, we provide a very high level of customer support/service and because we deal with the expedited market, we do it in an expedited manner! As an example of that service, we offer a full customer lounge with Laundromat facilities and showers for our customers."
"We hope soon to go to three shifts to better service our clientele by working around their time constraints. The bottom line is, people in the expedited freight business want to get in and out of the service provider's facility as quickly as possible and we want to accommodate that desire."
Advani tells of yet another service that the dealership will offer: "We have plans to provide a centralized gathering place for fleet owners to meet with their drivers in a group setting."
"They will be able to use our conference room in this Toledo facility which is centrally located and convenient to the major carriers such as Panther, FedEx, Tri-State and others."
During these meetings, Advani points out, the drivers can take advantage of the setting and have maintenance or repair performed.
Why Toledo?
"Toledo is the gateway to all of Michigan and Ontario, Canada," says Advani. "And," he adds, "The state of Ohio and the city of Toledo have welcomed us very warmly with perks and grants that were unavailable to us in Michigan."
Advani says that the new Toledo location represents a "makeover" of the Alumi-Bunk brand and along with the new home is a new name for the location which is the Supercenter dealership for Alumi-Bunk in the United States.
This location will operate under the corporate name of "Jain Truck Center" along with its sister dealerships - Belleville Freightliner and Kingston Freightliner, both in Ontario, Canada and West Virginia Truck and Trailer.
Advani has been named President of the Toledo dealership.
The Jain Truck Center can be found at Exit 207 on I75, right next to the Chrysler Jeep plant.
Jain Truck Center - 800 799-2865
Local number - 419 729-2594
Local fax number - 419 729-3090
The dealership's Grand Opening is tentatively scheduled for sometime in April, the exact date to be announced.