Can a dealership do it all? That seems to be the motivation for the team at Brisbane Isuzu Burpengary when it comes to just how comprehensive their service is.
A key part of Isuzu’s dealer network in Brisbane, which has been operating for over 26 years, the crew pride themselves on the support they are able to offer their customers. This is thanks to the scope of not only the dealership itself, but the adjoining engineering department, whose purpose is the research and development and custom fabrication and manufacturing of components, separate from the service workshop.
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They also have the capacity to build truck bodies on site, not having to contract independent bodybuilders and keeping it all in-house.
Brisbane Isuzu Burpengary general manager David Windsor says all these extra services and their ability to offer them to customers sets them apart.
“What’s different at Brisbane Isuzu is that we’re able to offer a fair bit more,” he says.
“We’re able to diversify from a support point of view. Our engineering workshop team is quite specialised when it comes to components, whether it’s designing and building accessories for trucks or building electrical harnesses for body building, particularly in the fleet and government space.
“In addition to that, we have a wrecking and recycling facility on the site here as well. The Burpengary site will do everything from a brand new truck driving out the door to its last days being dismantled for reuse of parts to keep other Isuzu Trucks on the road and the recycling of materials such as scrap metals and copper from wiring harnesses.”
As far as dealerships go, being able to manufacture truck bodies on site offers David and the team a significant advantage, especially with the customisability of several of their Isuzu models.
Big Rigs Australia, a body-building business, is based alongside Brisbane Isuzu in Burpengary, also operating another factory in Acacia Ridge in Brisbane’s southern suburbs.
They will build flat deck trays, tipper bodies, beaver tail bodies, pantechs and curtainsiders locally, while Acacia Ridge focuses on Pentecostal and curtainsiders for the Isuzu Australia ready-to-work offerings.
“It gives us another control point where we can build our own gear and design it all on site,” David says.
“We’ve got the ability to sit down with customers, understand their needs and then be able to correctly specify the vehicles and provide drawings prior to order.
“Even during the build, Our customers can come to the one site, see the progress of their vehicle and make any adjustments needed to ensure the build matches their needs exactly. We feel that this process makes a big difference to our customers and their confidence in our product.”
While their primary business is selling, building and servicing trucks, the Brisbane Isuzu team also run a small fleet of internal freight trucks, all Isuzu models of course.
They are used typically to run parts between the Brisbane Isuzu network, wherever they may be needed most. One of their curtainsider freight delivery vehicles has recently been fitted with Base Air.
“Our internal freight trucks are just running parts and whatnot between the dealerships and doing odd jobs where our small internal run vehicles aren’t big enough,” David says.
“You need something to pick up larger or heavier bulk items. That’s just a general freight vehicle that we utilise, but it can perform numerous different jobs within the group.”