Starting a Truck Repair Shop

Eventually, repair and maintenance are necessary for anything mechanical. Use wears down parts, brakes need service, engines may need gaskets and the list goes on. Trucks are not cheap investments so owner-operators and businesses that own fleets will find themselves looking for a repair shop. That shop needs the expertise, skills, and equipment to keep their investment up and running, and to minimize the downtime when truck trailers repairs in Tacoma are needed.

The first requirement

The person starting the shop needs to be mechanically inclined and to have a desire to be one's, own boss. Having worked as a truck mechanic for an existing shop will help a new entrepreneur decide what is entailed, how much work and what type of set up a budding shop owner wants to have.

Careful planning and building a sterling reputation before venturing out on your own will help ensure that the new shop will be successful. After making the decision that being a shop owner is where you want to go, building the business logically will create a solid foundation for a thriving business. Remember you are providing a service that will be necessary to all trucks sooner or later.

Logical Steps

Create a business plan. In that plan, you need to decide if the shop will start out with a mobile shop (that is a truck and trailer­ repair in Tacoma that can perform roadside emergency repair) or locate in a building. This decision pivots on the range of repairs and maintenance the shop offers.

Is this going to be a full-service shop, cater to heavy or light duty, focus on repairs or preventative maintenance? Remember that for owner-operators and fleet owners the trucks are the workhorse, or the bread earner and are worked very hard. So repairs, when needed, must be timely and efficient.

A building should be located somewhere highly visible with easy access, and the correct zoning and permits. Does the area you want to locate have special screening or disposal of petrol chemical requirements?

Are you going it alone or hiring employees to help? So you need someone who can do books, invoices, pay the bills. Is there a need for additional technicians? If so, hire talented, reliable, honest individuals because the business will depend on good work coming out of the shop.

Equipment can be expensive, can that be gotten slowly so that when you are ready to open a private shop the capital expenditure will not be as great? Can there be time to grow the fledgling business without crippling loan payments? What are necessities versus luxuries needed to make a shop functional?

You need a computer system for bookkeeping, payroll and accounting, a printer and someone who is conversant in them, especially inventory management and ordering. Too much inventory on hand and there are storage issues, too little and delays in repairs can result while waiting on parts. Having a good supply network is essential.

Finally, a truck repair owner must be honest and have integrity. Most businesses grow from repeat customers and many new customers come from word of mouth. If a shop has unhappy customers or a bad reputation then the business dies.

Other necessities are things like: needing to have a CDL so that the trucks that are being assessed and repaired can be taken on test drives. Building a customer base before jumping into shop ownership is rather like an insurance policy. If you can do side work, build a reputation for quality and efficient work, those side jobs will become the new shops first customers.

Extra services

Think about what extras your repair shop can offer that will distinguish it from the others, a lounge with television and coffee for preventative maintenance may be passe but loaners may not be. Be as accommodating as possible, same day and emergency repair service.

Preventative maintenance can build customer loyalty by preventing problems and catching them before they are big. It may take a few extra minutes to do a vehicle inspection, but if you catch a needed repair before it is an emergency repair you have done that trucker a great service.

It also is the bread and potatoes of the business, since a part of preventative maintenance is generally labor. Starting a truck repair shop is offering a service that is needed and over-performing brings the customers back.